LACA celebrates over 80 years of school meals with timeline at Main Event
25 Jul 2024
During the LACA Main Event, which took place on 3-4th July at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole, the school food organisation created a timeline featuring key events about school meals from the previous 83 years.
The timeline was displayed at the event where attendees could view the key milestones associated with school meals. The timeline featured:
- 1941: Introduction of free school meals milk scheme
- 1944: Education Act (Butler Act) mandated provision of school meals and free milk for all children
- 1949: Minimum Nutritional Standards introduced
- 1968: School meal price increase and decline in uptake
- 1971: Free milk ended over children aged over seven
- 1980: Education Act removed obligation of local authorities to provide meals and abolished nutritional standards
- 1986: Privatisation and contracting out catering services
- 1988: Salmonella scare
- 1989: LACA launched to protect the requirement for a school meal service
- 1990: First LACA Conference held at the Gatwick Hilton
- 1992: LACA launches TV advert
- 1993: National School Meals Week starts
- 1994: First School Chef of the Year (SCOTY) winner announced
- 1994: Wales region of LACA launches
- 1997: New Labour declares war on junk food
- 2001: Introduction of nutritional standards
- 2005: Jamie Oliver starts school meals campaign
- 2007: Soil Association launches Food for Life
- 2010: Universal infant free school meals pilot
- 2012: Government announces new review into school food
- 2014: Introduction of universal infant free school meals
- 2023: National School Meals Week celebrates 30th anniversary
- 2023: London primary children receive free school meals
- 2024: LACA appoints chef Mark Sargeant as ambassador
- 2024: LACA celebrates 80th anniversary of D-Day with event