Photograph by Bob Nichols/USDA
A government-commissioned school food review has said that head teachers across England should ban packed lunches and reduce the price of school meals to increase take-up.
Currently, around 43% of school pupils in England eat school lunches according to the report by Leon restaurant founders Allegra McEvedy and Henry Dimbleby, with higher take-up rates needed to reduce costs and improve the meals.
The review was ordered by Department of Education officials following the criticism levelled at many school food programmes by chef Jamie Oliver in his television programme Jamie’s School Dinners, which showed many meals made up of highly processed and low nutrient foods such as “Turkey Twizzlers” on the menu.
The review found the school food was generally much improved since Jamie Oliver’s campaign in 2005, with the food often much more nutritious than a packed lunch, but the take-up rate remains low. In order to change this the report recommended possibly subsidising school lunches in reception and Year 7 classes so children get into the habit of eating school lunches.
Banning packed lunches, however, would not be a workable solution according to a number of teachers, as it would be too difficult to enforce, and many pupils would still smuggle in the junk food they want. The most successful schools at providing school lunches manage to make it the most attractive option, but many schools do not offer such exciting menu items, and children often prefer the junk food of crisps and chocolate bars that are often packed for them by their parents.