Responding to the findings, The School Food Trust’s Director of Research, Michael Nelson said: “Given that around 23 per cent of children start school either overweight or obese, it’s absolutely clear that healthy choices as part of their early development will stand children in good stead – not only for keeping a healthy weight as they grow up, but as this evidence suggests, improving their ability to do well at school.”
The decline in family mealtimes is a symptom of modern life. In households where both parents work, sitting down to breakfast is often impractical, while finding time to prepare a freshly cooked meal in the evening can also be a challenge. On the other side of the coin, there are families on low incomes who do not have the financial or educational means to provide a healthy balanced diet. For their children, a school meal might be the only access they have to freshly prepared, nutritious food.
School meals were not always the healthy alternative, however. Jamie Oliver's 2005 report into school meal provision in one london borough had pupils, parents, teachers and ministers up in arms about the poor nutritional quality of the food, said to cost less to make than that served to prisoners. With the turkey twizzler held up as an example of everything that was wrong with school meals, it was clear that we couldn't possibly teach pupils about the need for a healthy balanced diet in class, if we were to contradict that message in the canteen.
The principles of good nutrition are now more widely understood, but is theory being translated into practice and could more be done to adopt a whole school approach? The School Food Trust thinks so. Responding to the National Curriculum Review, - Call for Evidence, the Trust insists that cooking and food skills (currently part of Design and Technology) should be a compulsory subject in all schools. Basing its views on scientific evidence, the experience of working with schools and local authorities across the country and published data from the evaluation its work, the Trust said: "The health and life chances of too many children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds - are being undermined by obesity and diet related diseases and conditions. The impact of this on a child's educational achievement is clear. Too many children are failing to realise their full potential.”
Proof that it works
A University of West England study analysed 48 of the Primaries in the Food For Life Partnership (FFLP) set up to encourage pupils and their parents to eat healthy food and learn how to cook it and grow it themselves, found that both inspection results and pupil's behaviour had improved under the scheme. More than a third (36.2%) were judged as outstanding by Ofsted, compared with 17.3% before joining the FFLP.
More than 3,600 schools are now members of the programme which encourages them to work towards Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of the Food for Life Partnership award scheme. Over 2,800 schools now serve Food for Life menus which are seasonal and freshly prepared with no hydrogenated fats or battery eggs.
Disadvantaged pupils are said to be benefiting too. Over a two-year period, free school meal take-up went up 13% in FFLP schools, 20.9% in secondary schools, and by 21% across the board in schools achieving the Silver or Gold award. 67.1% of schools felt the programme had a clear impact on their Ofsted report in terms of pupils’ personal development and well-being.
Commenting on the results, Libby Grundy director of the Food For Life Partnership warned that cuts to school meal budgets and supporting schemes would be a huge step backwards: “The UK has the highest rate of childhood obesity in Europe, with almost a quarter of adults and about one in ten children classed as obese and a further 20-25 per cent of children overweight. The UWE evidence shows that our programme has made a positive difference to improving diet and this in turn is having a knock-on effect on behaviour and attainment. Yet, just as the programme looks as if it has reached the tipping point in terms of making a cultural shift, cuts to local authority school meal budgets – and an uncertain funding future for the FFLP programme itself – could undo all the good work.”
It can't be denied that the work of both the SFT and FFLP has had a positive impact, with a number of schools reporting a change in attitudes and behaviour. Matt Jones, senior lecturer in health and social policy at UWE said: “This holistic approach appears to make a lot of sense for children who are encouraged to take their learning from classroom to dining hall and into their homes. Evidence of positive outcomes – for health, environmental awareness, wider learning and parental involvement, highlight the potential of joined-up action in schools.”
Professor Kevin Morgan, of Cardiff University's School of City and Regional Planning was part of the research team. He said: "This research shows that ending the FFLP scheme because of the current short-term emphasis on cost cutting would have a negative long-term impact on public health and the public purse."
Vending machine manufacturers too have been forced to address health issues in recent years. One company working hard to take a more holistic approach to health is The Green Drinks Company. Ian Bidmead, managing director, commented: “Vending machines have an important role to play in schools catering, offering healthy drinks throughout the day and reducing queues during busy mealtimes. They are also a much needed source of revenue generating, in some cases, around £5000 a year in profit. The pay off until now has been the impact of transporting bottles of drinks and keeping them refrigerated.
“With schools concerned about rising energy costs and both schools and children increasingly concerned about the environment, the role of the vending machine is once again subject to scrutiny. However, developments in technology mean that it is now possible to reduce the carbon footprint of a vending machine by about 80% by taking water out of the supply chain and making and packaging soft drinks in the vending machine itself.
“This new technology is being pioneered in UK schools. A number of schools have also chosen to use the dynamic appeal of the Pouchlink machine to teach children about food miles and the energy consumption involved in vending bottles of chilled soft drinks. Inspired by these schools, The Green Drinks Company is creating free online resources on the food miles involved in vending soft drinks in time for the new academic year.”
The School Lunch Grant - what now?
The school lunch grant was a specific, ring-fenced grant made to local authorities and schools until March 2011. Its aim was to increase the number of children eating healthy school meals by helping schools and councils keep down the price of a school lunch. It could only be used in four ways – to pay for ingredients for school lunch; pay labour costs of catering staff; buy small pieces of kitchen equipment, for example, microwaves, ovens, combi-ovens, mixers etc; pay for the nutrient analysis software required to assess whether a menu meets the national school lunch standards and the expertise to operate the software.
The coalition government has, however, removed this ring-fencing - it now forms part of schools’ baseline budgets from the Department for Education. Commenting on its removal, Sandra Russell, National Chairman of LACA said: “As the ring-fencing status of the SLG has only just been removed, it is too early to speculate about the possible outcomes of the decision.
"LACA will continue to work with schools and Local Authorities to emphasise the importance of school meals to the development of young people and how it should form part of the whole school approach to their education - if we are nationally to tackle the obesity crisis and decrease NHS costs in the longer term.
"Considerable efforts should be made to encourage Head Teachers and School Governing Bodies to channel the School Lunch Grant towards supporting the provision of school meals, as originally designated.
"It is important to advocate to parents that school meals still continue to represent very good value for money, particularly when weighed against their nutritional and educational benefits for children and young people”.
A recent poll has claimed that some teenagers spend more than £3 on lunch in the canteen each day. National studies also prove that a typical lunch brought in from home isn’t as nutritious as the average school lunch – normally higher in fat, sugar and salt. Packed lunches can also be repetitive insists the SFT – so they don’t help children learn by giving them a varied range of foods to choose from. A big concern however, is the cost. The SFT realises that the costs of a school lunch can mount up when parents have more than one child at school, which is why it has "welcomed" proposals to make it easier for schools to offer price deals such as ‘buy one, get one free’ for larger families. It is also working with Government, councils and schools to help them find ways to keep meal prices affordable for everyone.
School Food Trust Chief Executive, Judy Hargadon, said: “This will help schools and caterers to be even more innovative in the way they market healthy school food to parents and pupils, and reflects our own work in schools to test different promotions over the last few years. The ability to use special price offers – for example as children start reception class or Year 7 – is a proven way of encouraging children to try a balanced meal in their school dining room. With family budgets so tight at the moment, promotions making school food more affordable for parents on low incomes who don’t qualify for free school meals, or for larger families, will also be welcomed.
“We’ve estimated that parents could spend almost eight days a year making packed lunches for their children if they want them to meet the same healthy standards as school meals," said Judy. “What’s absolutely crucial is that pupils who would qualify for free school meals are signing up for them – as it could save parents hundreds of pounds a year on lunch money,” she said.
The old adage, 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' dates back to antiquity and yet in 2011 we are still fighting to keep school meals at the top of the political agenda. With health and nutrition offering opportunities for teaching and learning across the curriculum, a healthy, affordable and efficient school meals service, together with kitchen and dining facilities that are fully equipped and fit for purpose should be at its heart. Having seen school dinners transform from fatty fast foods into healthy dishes with a contemporary twist, it is vital that the drive to increase the number of pupils who enjoy a school meal continues.
Resource for schools
A fresh look at efficient kitchens and dining spaces, by the School Food Trust
Examples of improvements you can make:
• Installation of combination oven
• Expand the servery area
• Installation of dishwasher
• Use kitchen space for teaching
Examples of improvements you can test:
• Improve the flow
• Move to self-service
• Satellite servery
Improved efficiency and effectiveness in the dining space
For more information visit www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
