News

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) released the results yesterday (Monday 2 April) of a survey conducted among education staff about their views on school meal issues.

The survey found that respondents said there had been an increase in the uptake of free school meals (FSM) at their school or college in the past five years.

Although half of them felt that there should not be any universal entitlement to FSM for any age group, 44% said they believed there should be for all primary pupils and a further 23% believe all secondary school students should also be entitled to them.

On the exemption of academies and free schools from nutritional standards, currently the focus of a campaign jointly led by LACA, Sustain, School Food Matters, Children’s Food Campaign, Food for Life Partnership and the Jamie Oliver Foundation, one particularly interesting finding was that 82% of respondents believe new academies should comply with the nutritional standards.

Media coverage of the ATL findings has focused on the observations in the survey by teachers about a reduction in school meal portion sizes and claims that children are going hungry in the afternoon. The inference is that caterers are reducing portion sizes to cut costs.

LACA National Chair, Lynda Mitchell comments: “The nutritional standards that all caterers and schools should be following ensure that each meal is nutrient rich and a healthy balance of at least one portion of fruit and vegetables combined with starchy foods like pasta and rice, for example, as good sources of energy.

“The menus are devised to provide a nutritionally-balanced school meal every day to help children concentrate and perform better in class as well as for their general health and wellbeing.

“Portion size is determined by the nutritional standards which prescribe the amount of energy a school meal should provide. If the standards are being followed by schools then the portion sizes will be right.

“As to the suggestion that caterers are cutting costs by reducing portion sizes, this is nonsense. Given that food costs are a smaller proportion of the overall operational costs in running a school meals service, cutting down on portions would be a negligible saving.

“If cost cutting were needed, operators would be looking at making savings in other areas of higher expenditure such as labour. They would certainly not be penalising children and young people by trying to save minimal amounts of money in this way.”

LACA’s response to some of the key Survey findings are:

Survey: Three quarters (76%) of education staff believe that their school or college does enough to ensure those eligible for FSM receive them, by providing information about how to apply for them.

LACA: As schools have the data about which pupils are entitled to Free School Meals as well as those who are not actually taking up the meals, more could be done by schools to directly promote the benefits of a free daily hot meal to those parents.

Survey: Almost 10% or respondents said pupils eligible for FSM, do not actually eat them. 44% said they believed it was because the pupils did not like the food that is on offer and 41% believed that the children preferred to bring in their own food.

LACA: Schools should be doing more to identify the base line reasons for their pupils not taking up their meal entitlement by surveying them directly and not just making assumptions. There are often a number of factors that could affect their decision not to have a free school meal and in a number of cases, easily addressed.  For example, short lunch ‘hour’, inadequate facilities, poor lunch time experience etc.

Survey: 65% said that the cost of meals for paying pupils had increased over this academic year; 82% of respondents said they had gone up by less than 50p.

LACA: Although there have been some cost increases over the last financial year as a result of a number of factors such as rising food costs, many school caterers have striven to maintain prices as much as possible. The average price of a two-course school meal is £1.88 which still represents excellent value for money when compared to high street prices.

Survey: Some teachers said they were concerned about portion sizes and the amount of carbohydrates on the menu at their schools.

LACA: Claims of small portions may be as a result of adult perceptions of portion sizes, which is one of the biggest causes of overfeeding in children and young people. Schools following the nutritional standards will be adhering to the quantities and calories determined for each age group so if that is the case, the portion sizes should be correct.
If, as one teacher pointed out in the survey, there seems to be too much carbohydrate on offer every day (which is usually in the form of chips, pasta and rice) while there is an absence of vegetables and salad, this would seem to indicate an urgent need for a review of the service in that particular school. If nutritional standards were being followed, this scenario would not occur. Where schools are managing their own school meals service and have issues such as this, LACA can provide a consultative service to assist them. Schools also have a responsibility to monitor the quality and quantity of school meals and to ensure that they are compliant with nutritional standards.

Survey: Some teachers observed that generally the food was good but sometimes the advertised choice was unavailable with something else being given which the children had not chosen or the parents not paid for.

LACA: There is no excuse for poor quality or for running out of food. In order to minimise disappointment and to ensure that the pre-ordering process works, schools need to work in closer partnership with the caterers so that the quantities for each menu option can be more accurately anticipated and prepared for.