For the first time, a comprehensive picture is emerging of the take-up of school meals across the country. This is because local authorities (LAs) are now required to report the numbers of children eating school food.
But there is still a long way to go. The figures show that out of 150 local authorities, only 39.3 per cent of pupils eat school food at special and primary level. The figure drops to 35.1 per cent at secondary schools, academies and city technology colleges.
This data reveals that there has been a small increase in the take-up of school meals, which is a significant step in the right direction after a massive culture change in school food. This is the first time that there has been an increase at secondary level since the new standards for school food were introduced and shows that schools are slowly turning a corner.
Schools Minister Diana Johnson welcomed the School Food Trust's findings and said, "Four years ago, the majority of children were eating unhealthy meals at school. Chips, chocolate and sugar-filled fizzy drinks were available everyday as a choice for school lunch. Today there is no school where this can now happen - all schools must provide a portion of vegetable and fruit as part of a nutritionally balanced main meal. Now millions of children across the country are eating healthy school lunches.
"We know that it is often the state of dining facilities and poor organisation, not nutritional changes that put children off schools dinners. That is why we have invested significant funds in improving dining facilities and the School Food Trust is supporting schools to improve the way they organise their meals services.
"Many schools have provided great examples of how to entice children into the canteen. By refurbishing kitchens, making dining areas more inviting and even starting cooking clubs, where children can learn how to prepare healthy and delicious food, primary and secondary schools have seen an increase in pupils eating school lunches."
One such initiative is the Culinary Academy for Schools run by Premier Foods, which will be run for a second time this year. Aimed at secondary school cooks and unit managers, the relaxed and interactive one-day sessions are being enhanced this year to help drive income as well as create healthy and appealing meals.
Laura Tufnell-Barrett, Marketing Controller at Premier Foods, said: "The Academies enable us to work closer with schools, providing hands-on advice and support through our dedicated team of education specialists, and help them to produce meals that are healthy and appealing, as well as cost-effective.
"Having listened to last year's attendees and the education sector generally, we recognise that it's becoming more and more important for catering teams to keep menus fresh and appealing to kids. So this year, we're also including training on running a theme day - giving helpful hints and tips to help market school meals to young adults - increasing income as well as making school meal occasions fun."
It is not only the menu in schools that contributes to school meal take up. The School Food Trust report found that an attractive dining environment can also help. And the benefits of encouraging children to eat a healthy lunch are huge - research has shown that pupil engagement and concentration after lunch rose by 18 percent in secondary school pupils.
At the recent Local Authorities Caterers Association School Meals Exhibition, there was a plethora of interesting and innovative product to help schools brighten up their dining areas.
Gopak showed a large range of dining room furniture including stacking benches on a bench skate, a round table with bright yellow chairs, the lime green POP chair and a rectangular table. "The challenge of producing products for the school market is to create something durable, functional, colourful and flexible enough for multiple use," says the company's Diane Ponting. She warns schools to do their research before investing in dining room furniture.
"There is more choice of product suitable for education with many cheap but also more expensive imports. The market seems much more fragmented and schools no longer depend on their local buying department when purchasing furniture," she says.
One of the best ways to ensure that you are purchasing good quality equipment is to go to a certified supplier. Foster Refrigerator have agreed set best-prices with Buying Solutions (the national procurement partner for UK public services) in order to provide unbeatable prices on a contract exclusively for the public sector.
"The Contract is awarded only after extensive supplier evaluation, and is thereby limited to those meeting strict criteria. Taking this into account, Foster Refrigerator are proud to have been an approved supplier on the Contract for the past 30 years," says Foster's Vim Hariani.
Another consideration for this type of product is the government's sustainability targets. Defra's sustainability "Quick Wins" is a list of commonly purchased products where minimum environmental standards have been identified for each. Quick Wins sets minimum standards in energy consumption, recycled content and biodegradability. If school procurers buy to these specifications, it is a Quick Win in helping Departments meet their sustainable targets and so produce savings for the environment.
"Foster Refrigerator is the only Buying Solutions supplier with a full range of products on the ECA scheme with the Eco Pro Cabinets and Counters and Eco Premier Cabinets and Counters all ECA approved and so qualifying for Quick Wins. Any Foster product that qualifies as a Quick Wins model is identified by a 'Green Tick' - the recognised symbol for products meeting best practice specification," adds Vim Hariani.
Case study: The King's School, Grantham
The new kitchen at King's School in Grantham is based on the Finnish schools system an idea introduced to King's by catering consultant Richard Wedgbury FCSI.
It includes two large cooking kettles, combination ovens, a blast chiller and hot food delivery boxes. The new kitchen replaced a traditional school layout based on cooking ranges with ovens under.
An evaluation of the catering facilities for a new sixth form common room was followed with help on new food standards and purchasing. "We have made significant savings, 12-20% on average across our top 20 items," said Bursar Peter Kirkbride.
But the main school kitchen and dining facilities were also in need of attention and Wedgbury helped with plans for refurbishing the main school kitchen and dining hall, working with kitchen designer Tim Dunn FCSI, who drew up the plans for the new layout.
The ambition of Kirkbride is for King's School kitchen to become self-funding. The plan is to improve the uptake from King's pupils and provide schools outside with food using delivery boxes. "When we start serving more than 300 meals daily the kitchen is going to pay for itself in three and a half years," says Kirkbride.
"We would like to add a walk-in freezer for storage and another kettle, which will really start to maximize production because we can make one big batch of curry use half immediately and freeze half for regeneration in the combi ovens.
"Our food used to be average, now it is brilliant. You know it's working when even the teachers come in to eat and the governors say they have never had such a good school dinner!
"We now have a bright attractive place to eat with two flat screen TVs with sport and news and a 42 inch electronic message board. It's also ideal for functions in the evenings, weekends or even holiday times.
"The introduction of four serving sections has cut queueing and, unusually, we operate a self-service system. If they are hungry let them have some more, it's far better than stocking up on crisps afterwards. You need to watch portion sizes but we have great staff who keep an eye on things. The meat portion, for example roast turkey, is two slices but pupils can have as much vegetables as they like."
In summer 2008 the new model kitchen was installed. Operated by 10 staff it is under the charge of ex-army chef Stewart Scrupps. "It's very modern and I am impressed with the layout. This is also my first time working with these big kettles," says Scrupps.
"Other schools with this amount of space could cook the same sort of food. Yes I do see this kitchen as the future for school meals. I had to adjust to the equipment and to think about the process of producing 200-250 meals per day plus up to 150 snacks using only the 6-burners on a range, the kettles and the combi ovens.
"For lunch service, dishes such as pork stroganoff, paella, mashed potato and pasta come from the kettles while the combi ovens produce vegetables, roast meats and potatoes. "The temperature in the kettles gets up to 110degC - nearly frying, perfect for sealing meat. For cheesecake it has an aerator attachment and we can also make bread dough and prove in it."
Good menu planning is crucial to getting the highest volumes from the equipment. Half a batch of tomato soup, for example, is reserved for service later. The remainder is turned into a tomato sauce for a chicken and pasta dish. One large batch of white sauce could become cheese sauce, mushroom soup and sauce for a chicken dish.
