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The event, held on Thursday 18th April, was attended by key industry figures including LACA chair Anita Brown, immediate past chair Brad Pearce, vice chair Judith Gregory and vice chair elect Michael Hales.

Over 20 MPs attended the event to talk with LACA representatives, school caterers and children from Dersingham Primary School about the importance and challenges of providing school meals.  

The MPs who attended included Sharon Hodgson MP for Washington and Sunderland West, Andrew Gwynne MP for Denton and Reddish, Diana Johnson MP for Kingston upon Hull, Christian Wakefield MP for Bury South, Lillian Greenwood MP for Nottingham South plus many more.

During the event LACA had three core aims to highlight and discuss:

1. More funding to deal with the increased cost of food prices and of staff, the current situation is unsustainable, many caterers, particularly smaller and medium sized companies will find it difficult to continue operating, threatening thousands of jobs. LACA are calling for a minimum free school meal value in England of £3.00 per meal (index linked)
2. An extension of free school meals for all children whose parents are entitled to Universal Credit
3. For funding for school meals to be ringfenced to ensure funding follows the child. The budget is currently issued to schools who do not always pass the full amount to the caterer to provide school meals.

Anita Brown, chair of LACA, commented: “There are 800,000 children living in poverty whose parents are not entitled for free school meals but they just can’t afford to pay for one. Our purpose of having a Great School Lunch is so important and it’s crucial that we get the right funding to offer the right healthy meal that meets the school food standards.

“The funding that we do get we will be asking for it to be ring-fenced so the funding follows the children. Quite often the full amount doesn’t get passed onto the caterer. The cost of living crisis has had a huge impact on vulnerable families therefore the provision of a healthy school lunch is vitally important. It has never been as important as it is now. Everyone knows that hungry children do not educate.”

A predicted average meal price of £2.73 from April 2024 will represent a 20% increase since May 2022, yet funding only provides £2.53 per child across most of England (with Wales being £3.20, London being £3.00 and Scotland £3.33). Schools and parents are having to make up the shortfall to ensure that meals can be provided to all pupils.

LACA ambassador Mark Sargeant added: “LACA’s Great School Lunch event is pivotal because it highlights the importance of providing schoolchildren with a healthy, nutritious and hot school meal. For some of them this may be the only hot meal they have in the entire day. 

“It was good to meet with over 20 MP’s to discuss increased school meal funding in England, the expansion of free school meals to those whose parents are entitled to universal credit and for school meals funding to be ringfenced to ensure funding follows the child.” 

LACA, the school food people, are the representative body of the school food industry. With over 300 local authorities, county, district councils and London Boroughs represented in the membership, 80% of the school catering service in the UK is provided by LACA members. LACA believes that by ‘investing in school meals means investing in a healthier future for our children’.

MP Sharon Hodgson said: “The timing of our event was particularly serendipitous, coinciding with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s announcement that, if re-elected, he will continue his universal free school meal offer to primary schools in London, permanently. I believe that the tides are changing and the support for school meals as a key education and public health policy is growing and growing.

“We have the opportunity to cement school food at the top of the political agenda and fight to feed every child with the nutritious, delicious, hot and healthy school dinners they need to thrive. I hope my colleagues in Parliament came away from our lunch with a renewed appetite for change – because when it comes to fighting to make school food the best it can be, there is no time like the present.”

Four students from Dersingham Primary School in Newham including Jasmine, Jevan, Mia and Razvan attended the event alongside their head teacher Lando Du Plooy. Desingham Primary School was involved in LACA’s ‘fair school meals funding’ campaign in February 2024 that had an audience reach of more than five million on the day.

Previous LACA School Chef of the Year (SCOTY) winners and contestants helped serve typical examples of school lunches at the event to showcase to MP’s what a modern day school meal looks and tastes like.

The main meals on the menu were: lamb tikka masala curry, jackfruit & lentil lasagne and leek & red pepper quiche. The accompaniments available included rice, baby baked potatoes, coleslaw and cucumber & mint raita rainbow vegetables. For dessert there was apple & raspberry crumble with custard, St Clement’s drizzle cake and a fresh fruit platter.

Juniper Ventures provided the food for the event and equipment was borrowed from Harfield, Moffat and BGL Rieber. All guests received a goody bag at the event with information about the day and also treats supplied by Sefton Council.