Katie Price's ex Alex Reid calls for packed lunch ban

30 April 2012 by
Katie Price's ex Alex Reid calls for packed lunch ban

Former Celebrity Big Brother winner Alex Reid has called for supermarkets, banks and big business to fund free, healthy school meals for all children, in a speech in parliament.

Reid, the ex-husband of glamour model Katie Price (aka Jordan), said he wanted school packed lunches to be banned because pupils were eating chocolate and crisps which were "affecting their ability to concentrate in lessons".

Speaking to the All-Party Group on School Food, he outlined plans to raise £1b by offering companies promotional opportunities, including direct marketing to parents, in return for investment in a scheme called Let's Do Lunch.

He said his proposal would remove the financial burden of providing school meals from the taxpayer, adding: "The important thing is the Let's Do Lunch marketing would help companies investing in the scheme to generate more revenues.

"I want to make healthy school meals available to all kids. We will essentially make them compulsory and ban packed lunches."

In 2010, the Government shelved a scheme devised under Labour to widen entitlement to free meals to 500,000 more low-income families.

Labour MP and shadow education minister Sharon Hodgson, who is a member of the all-party group, said there were fears that more children could lose entitlement to free lunches under the forthcoming Universal Credit system.

"We now have to look at other ways of achieving those ambitions. The project that Alex is working on could go some way towards that," she told the Sunderland Echo last week.

Are school caterers skimping on portion sizes to cut costs? >>

Children's Society in call for free school meals for all children in poverty >>

LACA supports MP's call for mandatory school food standards for academies and free schools >>

By Janie Manzoori-Stamford

E-mail your comments to Janie Manzoori-Stamford here.

Tabletalk
Tabletalk
If you have something to say on this story or anything else join the debate at Table Talk - Caterer's new networking forum. Go to www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/tabletalk

Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs

Looking for a new job? Find your next job here with Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs

Blogs on Catererandhotelkeeper.com ](http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/blogs) Catch up with more news and gossip on all Caterer's blogs
[E-Newsletters](http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/email-newsletters.htm)[ For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our E-newsletters
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking