School Meals Matter

Pabulum works with pupils to develop cook book

2011-02-18T11:13:45Z

Education caterer Pabulum has created a cookery book of pupils' favourite recipes.

Pabulum's business development team decided to compile the book following a positive response from children and parents to Pabulum's range of healthy option school meals across many schools on the Isle of Wight.

Kevin Phillips, operations manager for Pabulum on the Island, explained: "Both children and parents have been so enthusiastic about the school meals that we decided to compile a book of their favourite recipes - especially when several Mums told us that their children actually preferred our take on a number of traditional favourites to their home-cooked versions!"

The first edition of the Isle of Wight Primary Schools' Cook Book was launched after two pupils, whose pictures are featured in the book, were invited by printers Crossprint to start the presses.

The book will be available for sale through participating schools and proceeds will go to charity. Pabulum will also showcase it at several outside events over the next year as proof that nutritious, healthy school meals are the way to go.

"We're delighted with the book," added Phillips. "Not only does it truly reflect Pabulum's commitment to delivering the best school meals possible, but also demonstrates the children's enthusiasm for our meals - and they will always be the best ambassadors we could wish for in spreading the word that healthy is best."

Pabulum's Healthy Bunch hits the road

2011-02-08T18:42:34Z

Contract caterer Pabulum has continued its efforts to encourage healthy eating in schools by taking its Healthy Bunch characters on the road.

The characters, originally launched as part of a campaign three years ago, were updated last April and according to Pabulum, form an important part of Pabulum's campaign aimed at raising awareness of healthy eating in schools.

The latest initiative sees two of the Healthy Bunch's six characters - Dizzy Dog and Sammy Sheep - brought to life to accompany Pabulum's operations managers on school visits to deliver height charts and facilitate healthy eating discussions.

Each character has its own special nutritional message, designed to help children understand the basics of good nutrition and eat more healthily. Dizzy Dog's message is that meat has iron in it to help children do their exercises and stay fit, whilst Sammy Sheep's message is focused on the benefits of vegetables.

The remaining four Healthy Bunch characters have similar messages promoting the benefits of diet staples such as milk, oats, fruit and pulses.

Jonathan Gawthrop, managing director, explained: "We always work closely with our schools to help them promote the advantages of healthy eating and spread our passion for honestly good food.

"These visits have been great fun and a highly effective means of getting our messages across."

Mrs Gillian Cocklin, head teacher, South Ascot Village School - one of the schools involved in the visits - agreed: "The children love the Healthy Bunch characters and they've really enjoyed this visit from Dizzy Dog.

"It's a great way to encourage them to buy into the concept of healthy food and learn about its benefits."

School meals 'reduce truancy', finds pilot project

2011-01-14T16:06:11Z

Healthy eating goes up and accidents and truancy go down when children are kept in school at lunchtime.

These are the findig of a pilot project in Glasgow where pupils at eight schools were kept in the grounds and offered activities alongside healthy food, according to the BBC.

More children ate school meals and staff reported less truancy and improved safety, as a result.

The findings will no doubt be welcomed by Rob Rees who called on headteachers to adopt a lock-in policy upon his appointment as chairman of the School Food Trust in February last year.

The pilot scheme, run by Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Centre for Social Research and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, has now been rolled out to a further seven schools.

It was carried out among S1 pupils between August 2009 and June last year.

Staff reported a reduction lateness for class while pupils said there was less pressure to go out even if they did not want to and less teasing and bullying.

School meal funding to continue, thanks to School Meals Matter campaign

2010-10-22T09:35:20Z

Funding for school meals will continue to be available, thanks to supporters of the Caterer and Hotelkeeper School Meals Matter campaign, held in conjunction with the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA).

Months of concern over the future of the School Lunch Grant have been laid to rest after it emerged from the comprehensive spending review that funding will continue beyond the grant's expiry date of March 2011 as part of the expanded baseline budget for schools.

Caterer launched the campaign with LACA ahead of this year's general election, calling on the government-elect to demonstrate a firm commitment to the importance of school meals.

Mark Lewis, Caterer editor, explained: "We launched School Meals Matter because we all stand to gain from continued funding of school meals provision. As parents, we want to see our children nutritionally-equipped to study and exercise at school. As taxpayers, we want to see the burden on the National Health Service caused by obesity and type two diabetes eased.

"And, as stakeholders in the hospitality industry, we want to ensure fresh generations of children who appreciate flavour, enjoy eating out and may perhaps even go on to work in the industry themselves. I'm delighted that we and LACA were able to galvanise the hospitality industry to exert pressure on the government to take the right decision."

School meal champions have welcomed the news but there is still disappointment that the cash intended to be spent on healthy lunch provision has not been ring-fenced.

"After months of lobbying and mobilising the support of the industry, I am delighted that with the support of Caterer and Hotelkeeper, the message from LACA members has been heard by the coalition Government, and despite the cuts to public services, the School Lunch Grant will continue and will be included in the schools budget," said Beverley Baker, past chair of LACA and campaign figurehead.

"The money will not be ring-fenced, which would have been even better, but caterers will be able to negotiate with schools to ensure the money is spent as intended, on school food."

According to Andrew Etherington, food service consultant at Andrew Etherington Associates, the Government decision not to make cuts to education spend coupled with an increase in head teacher engagement in school meals could mean that the unprotected funding may not be raided for other purposes as feared.

"I have ample evidence of head teachers becoming very involved in the quality of their school meals but they are very disappointed that the capital spending on new buildings and facilities has been slashed by 60%," said Etherington.

"They still feel that the quality of the facilities they're given makes a massive difference."

School Food Trust outlines plans after funding cut

2010-10-14T15:09:15Z

The School Food Trust (SFT), the body set up to spearhead school dinner reform post-Jamie Oliver, is to be transformed after having its funding cut in the Government's quango cull.

The trust, which currently receives public cash, is to continue as a charity and will also set up a complementary Community Interest Company by April 2011. The move should grant it greater commercial flexibility to support its work to increase the healthy school meal uptake in England.

Although yet to be defined, the Government has also signalled that the trust will take forward a number of activities for the Department for Education, the details of which will be revealed in next week's Comprehensive Spending Review.

SFT chairman Rob Rees said: "We are confident that our new status as a Community Interest Company and charity means we will be able to work with everyone involved in children's food and drink to inspire improvements in food and education and give our young people a great start in life."

The Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) said it would continue to work as closely as possible with the SFT within the framework of its new status, and once it had a clearer understanding of its new role, aims and remit.

However LACA national chairman Sandra Russell, looking ahead to next week's Comprehensive Spending Review, said the school meal service in England still needed frontline support.

"LACA would like to see the Government emphasise to schools and local authorities the importance of school meals to the development of young people and how it should form a key element of the whole school approach to their education, if we are to tackle the obesity crisis and decrease NHS costs in the longer term.

"It is essential, therefore, that the health of children and young people is not the target for cuts but, on the contrary, remains a top priority budgetary item."

Tell what you think about the School Food Trust on Table Talk >>

WHAT IS A COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY?
Community Interest Companies (CICs) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes.

LACA chair, Sandra Russell - A Minute on the Clock

2010-10-14T14:53:37Z

Sandra Russell became chairman of school meals body the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) this month, just as school meals funding looks set to suffer under the chancellor's sharpened knife. Chris Druce spoke to her about the challenges ahead.

Caterer So you've returned to the role of chairman again

Sandra Russell Yes, I've been a member of LACA since its start in 1990 and was previously national chair in 2007/08. I had hoped to avoid a controversial year but it looks like that's not going to happen.

Caterer The School Meals Grant ends next March. What happens if there's no more money?

SR My own Warwickshire region [where Russell is head of catering] saw a downturn in school meals following Jamie Oliver's campaign and ended up running a deficit. We've now built the service back up, and in percentage terms are where we were before the TV programmes. [If there's no more funding] all the hard work of the past few years could be undone.

Caterer Ahead of next week's spending review it's been leaked that the School Food Trust will lose its funding. What effect would this have?

SR The trust has worked tirelessly to implement the Government's agenda. It has also provided an advisory service during a period where there have been a lot of questions and concern. LACA has always tried to find common ground and has worked closely with the trust, while agreeing to disagree on certain issues. However the time has come to let school caterers continue to take the service forward based on the solid foundation that the trust has helped build.

Caterer What risk does the spending review on 20 October carry for school meals?

SR A potential risk factor is that the previous Government said future school meals money might get rolled up into the main schools grant. If it's no longer ring-fenced and times are tough, schools might spend the money elsewhere.

Caterer Child benefit is to be cut from 2013 for middle income families. Will this affect the service?

SR On its own I don't think it will affect school meals uptake but if there's a range of benefit cuts in the spending review and parents' income is diminished it could become an issue, especially as parents don't tend to price up the cost of packed lunches in quite the same way [as school meals], as it's lumped in with their main weekly food shopping.

Caterer Overall you sound optimistic about the future

SR The investment we have had in the service has been most welcome, although it has probably replaced no more than 10% of what was taken out [from the late 1980s on]. We now have a firm base to build upon.

● Caterer will be taking a detailed look at LACA, its history and achievements next week (22 October issue) as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Not too late to get involved in National School Meals Week

2010-10-11T15:45:23Z

It's still not too late to get involved in this year's National School Meals Week (NSMW), which starts 8 November.

Bigger and better than ever before, NSMW is organised by the Local Authority Caterers Association as a showcase for the healthy school meals service.

This year, there's a range of themed days throughout the week, with Get Eating marking the start. The Monday event will see parents and local dignitaries invited along to take part in Britain's biggest school lunch.

Hospitality plays its part on Tuesday under the banner of Get Supporting, which will see businesses across the sector supporting their local schools.

For example, in Cambridgeshire, pupils from a primary school will be visiting their local Hotel du Vin to see their winning competition dish put on the hotel's restaurant specials board. The children will also get to make healthy smoothies and learn how to lay a table for service in the bistro. The hotel's chef and bistro manager will then return with them to school to help with the lunch service - run by Cambridgeshire Catering Services.

The week also includes Get Dancing, Get Remembering and Get Giggling days as well, and there are loads of free resources for teachers to download to make sure the initiative is a huge success. The resources, such as videos suitable for assemblies, can be used throughout the year to reinforce the healthy eating message at no cost.

National School Meals Week takes place from 8-12 November and full details and resources are available on the website.

Save our school dinners, says Soil Association

2010-09-29T14:35:21Z

The Soil Association has partnered with the Children's Food Campaign and other school food and children's health campaigners to continue the fight to save school dinners.

Following the conclusion of the School Meals Matter petition, the Save Our School Dinners campaign needs your support as there has still been no official commitment to our nation's school food service.

In fact, the Government's decision earlier this year to scrap the proposed extension to free school meals, health secretary Andrew Lansley's criticism of Jamie Oliver's approach to school dinners, and the leaked document last week that listed the School Food Trust as one of the taxpayer-funded bodies facing the chop demonstrate the importance of supporting this campaign.

So sign the petition now - it asks the government to protect the new healthy lunches and promote good food education at school.

Time is running out though, as the petition will be handed in ahead of the Spending Review on 20 October but it only takes a minute to do.

If when you've signed you want to go a step further, the Soil Association is calling on you to write to your local MP. Full details on how to do so are available here.

Eden Foodservice set to retain Croydon school meals contracts

2010-09-27T15:28:41Z

Eden Foodservice is on target to retain the bulk of its school meals contracts in Croydon, despite the council's decision to cease central management of the borough's service.

Following the Government's policy of allowing schools to take responsibility for their own commissioning needs, Croydon Council said in August that it will not be retendering for the central school meals contract when the current contract concludes in April next year.

Eden Foodservice, the specialist school catering division of Rentokil Initial, services the majority of Croydon schools and last year became the first catering firm to be given the Silver accreditation Food for Life catering mark for a group contract by the Soil Association for its work in the borough.

It faced losing a large proportion of its business as a result of the council's move, however managing director Simon James has told Caterer that like a "phoenix from the ashes", much of the service will continue.

"We've so far had the opportunity to meet with 60% of the schools in Croydon and to date we only have one school that is considering another option, and that is only because the numbers concerned there are very small.

"Everybody else is incredibly positive and I am confident that we will retain a significant number of those schools based on what we've done over the past few years. It is a flagship authority in terms of its school meals service."

James said that while they will now have numerous clients rather than one, increased head teacher engagement "post-Jamie Oliver" means that there will be very little impact on the day-to-day running of the service.

However he voiced concerns that other local authorities might follow Croydon's lead and opt out of a central service. "It's a tremendous burden to put on schools on top of everything else. I am hopeful that it is an isolated decision," he added.

School caterers' body wants SFT cash redirected to front-line services

2010-09-24T16:20:43Z

The new chairman of the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) has called on the coalition Government to invest the money saved from cutting School Food Trust (SFT) funding on front-line services.

Speaking to Caterersearch.com, Sandra Russell, who officially assumes her role as LACA chairman next week, said that after news the SFT funding was for the chop in next month's Comprehensive Spending Review, ministers should redirect at least some of the saved cash towards ensuring the continuation of the school meals service.

Russell said the trust, set up in 2005, had done a good job of a difficult task but had always been intended to exist for a finite time only.

"The trust has worked tirelessly to implement the Government's agenda, and has created a range of marketing materials to help school caterers that simply wouldn't have existed otherwise. It has also provided an advisory service during a period where there have been a lot of questions and concern.

"LACA has always tried to find common ground and has worked closely with the trust, while agreeing to disagree on certain issues. However the time has come to let school caterers continue to take the service forward based on the solid foundation that the trust has helped build," Russell said.

In May the newly elected coalition Government slashed the SFT's budget by £1m as part of its initial spending cuts aimed at reducing the UK's massive deficit. However, a leaked document published in the Daily Telegraph today named the SFT as one of numerous quangos that would get the funding chop in October's spending review.

The SFT was unavailable to comment.

School Food Trust to be cut

2010-09-24T10:46:16Z

The School Food Trust is set to have its funding withdrawn completely, according to documents leaked to the press detailing 177 tax-payer funded quangos that face the chop.

A further 94 Government bodies, including the Environment Agency, remain under threat; four will be privatised; 129 will be merged and 350 have won a reprieve; according to the Cabinet Office list seen by The Daily Telegraph.

The School Food Trust was dealt a financial blow in May when Chancellor George Osborne slashed its budget as part of the Government's £6.25b first wave of spending cuts. The trust's marketing spend was cut by 40% to £1.5m, resulting in total Government funding falling to £7.65m.

Set up in 2005 with £15 million of Government funding, the SFT was given the remit of transforming school food and food skills and in April 2007 the Trust became registered as a charity, which means it can continue if is able to support itself.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) faces the biggest cuts, with more than 50 bodies to be abolished, including the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and Farm Animal Welfare Council. The Department of Health will see about 30 bodies either cut or have their functions reduced.

The School Food Trust was unavailable to comment.

SFT hits out at unhealthy food served at visitor attractions

2010-08-23T16:24:32Z

Government quango the School Food Trust has turned its attentions to the fare served at Britain's visitor attractions and has written to museums, zoos and theme parks to complain about the food they offer.

Rob Rees (pictured), chairman of the SFT, said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that parents were having to put up with too many fatty, unhealthy dishes and called for more "home-made" cooking to be offered, along with more fruit and salad.

"Some (attractions) just have food that is very heavily saturated, and quite pricey too. Very heavily processed burgers, pizzas that leave you wondering what the toppings even are," he added.

"I'm not saying we need standards and legislation. Just that we should have nice home-made cooking and things like fruit salad served as the norm. It shouldn't be a bolt-on for attractions - it should be a core part of the attraction.

"If they get it right, more people will go there."

However attraction owners have argued that they serve food that is appropriate for treats on a day out.

Sally Ann Wilkinson, head of corporate affairs at Merlin Entertainment, which counts Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds among its portfolio, said: "A lot of families, even if they have quite clear rules at home, are happy to break those rules on a day out.

"Our view is it's about choice - it's not for us to dictate the nation's diet. That's for schools and other places where children go every day," she added.

She said that only half of children took up the offer of free salad with their meals.

The trust has posted a pro-forma letter on its website, which can be downloaded by parents who are unsatisfied by the food available at visitor attractions.

The SFT, which was originally intended to improve school food, had its budget slashed by £1m in May as part of the first wave of Government spending cuts.

Jamie Oliver picks up Emmy for US TV series

2010-08-23T10:47:57Z

Jamie Oliver's healthy eating crusade has earned him an Emmy for his US television series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

"I can't believe it," said Oliver on his Twitter feed to over 580,000 followers. "Thanks to everyone that signed the petition, 650,000 of you."

The six-part series, with a message similar to Oliver's UK School Dinners campaign that sparked a revamp of British school meals, encouraged young Americans to eat more healthily.

It encouraged supporters, including Britain's Ricky Gervais and Friends star Jennifer Aniston, to sign an online petition "to save America's cooking skills and improve school food".

The creative arts Emmys honour technical achievements and precede next week's main Emmys ceremony.

Healthy eating guide launched for secondary school pupils

2010-08-20T14:34:22Z

The School Food Trust has released a new guide for new secondary school children to help them get the most out of healthy school catering.

More than 12,000 pupils starting in year 7 in September across England will receive the guide, following research that found children often report feeling overwhelmed in the canteen as they start secondary school.

The Secondary School Meals, Eat Better Do Better guide aims to make the transition easier by explaining what new pupils and their parents and carers can expect from lunchtime at the new school.

Kirsten Bolton, senior marketing manager at the SFT said: "It's easy for a child going up to secondary school to feel worried about noisy canteens, which tend to be bigger and busier than at primary school, but we hope this guide will bust some of the myths and encourage children to try the great food on offer.

"If we can encourage Year 7s to give school lunches a try this September, we're on the right track to keep them coming back for more."

Local authorities in Bristol, Milton Keynes, North Somerset, Sunderland, Darlington, Stockton, Waltham Forest and Worcestershire are distributing the guides to pupils at the start of term.

School lunches on the rise

2010-07-15T08:40:48Z

As figures show that take-up of school lunches is on the rise, experts say it's more important than ever to maintain the momentum and sustain quality. Neil Gerrard reports

The number of children eating school lunches in England every day has risen by almost 321,000, according to new figures.

The annual survey of school lunch take-up for the 2009-10 year, carried out by the School Food Trust and the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), shows that take-up of healthy school lunches increased in both primary and secondary schools.

In primary schools, the proportion of children eating a school lunch rose from 39.3% in 2008-09 to 41.4% in 2009-10, a rise of 2.1 percentage points. Secondary schools saw a 0.8-point increase, from 35% in 2008-09 to 35.8% in 2009-10.

The news follows comments by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, attacking Jamie Oliver's school dinner campaign saying that "people did not want to be lectured" about healthier eating.

School Food Trust chair Rob Rees reinforces the point, saying that by highlighting the poor state of school canteen food, Jamie Oliver inadvertently caused the uptake to drop further.

]]> "The number of children eating school meals had been on a downward spiral for many years when Jamie Oliver brought the issue into the nation's living room, leading to even more children and parents turning their backs on canteens," he says.

"Now, following the introduction of national standards for meals and the hard work to improve the dining room experience for children, this is being reversed - disproving the myth that children simply don't want to eat healthy food."

But he is disappointed that the number of children eating school meals is still in the minority. "The School Food Trust, schools, caterers, local authorities and cooks still have a huge amount to do before we can say the school meals revolution is complete," Rees adds.

Beverley Baker, chair of the Local Authorities Catering Association, believes the increase in uptake is a real achievement for everyone involved in the provision of school food. But she, too, recognises that over half the population are still missing out.

"The figures show that although more children are having a school meal every day than last year, this is still less than half of the school population," she says. "In order to maintain take-up, or increase further the number of children and young people having a school meal, it is essential that we continue to give maximum support to the service so that we can sustain quality and ensure that prices remain affordable for parents."

Baker believes that particularly with the Governments focus on belt tightening, it's more important than ever for children and young people to have school meals.

"At a time when discretionary spending for parents is under pressure, school meals represent better value for money than a packed lunch when you consider the higher nutritional content and greater contribution they can make to children's diets and lifestyles as well as academic and physical achievement," she adds.

Last month Education Secretary Michael Gove said he was scrapping plans by Ed Balls, his predecessor, to extend free school meals from next term to 500,000 of the very lowest paid.

LE BLOG... RAYMOND BLANC DEFENDS JAMIE OLIVER'S CAMPAIGN

You have to wonder what the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, thought he was doing when he attacked Jamie Oliver school dinner campaign. Shot himself in the foot, I'd say. His remarks that "people did not want to be lectured" about healthier eating, that Jamie's efforts to reform school meals have flopped, and that he, Mr Lansley, was going to introduce "an evidence based approach", all show a talent for putting his foot in his mouth by opposing the first, most promising steps to improve our kids' diets and the quality of their future lives.

Mr Lansley will have done his own career no good, as he seems to have contradicted what his own, wiser boss said about Oliver in a Party Conference speech: "We need to understand that cultural change is worth any number of government initiatives," said David Cameron. "Who has done more to improve school food, Jamie Oliver, or the Department of Education? Put another way, we need more of Supernanny, less of the nanny state." Whomever Mr Lansley thought he was aiming his buckshot at, most of it really does seem to have peppered his own pedal extremity.

Let's look at Mr Lansley's claims. First: the lecture. Lansley wants to change the name of his department to the Department of Public Health. How much will it cost us to insert the single word "Public"? I'll wager it's at least enough to give every schoolchild a portion of fresh fruit or veg for a week or two.

Lecturing? Hectoring, more likely: the Health Department spends a king's ransom on advertising campaigns, and supports wretchedly expensive quangos such as the Health Protection Agency (£155.9m budget) and Healthcare Commission (£61.4m). Is Mr Lansley really prepared to argue that either of these nanny-statist bodies has had a hundredth of the influence of Jamie on schoolkids, their parents or the professionals responsible for school meals?

And Jamie's cost to the exchequer? Very little by comparison to the profligate mess of a department Mr Lansley has inherited from his predecessors. So why doesn't he just get on with cutting the fat from his own inessential projects (as we've been promised/threatened by the Government) and stop taking potshots at Jamie?

We'll take his second and third claims together - that Jamie's efforts have failed, which his "evidence based approach" will presumably demonstrate.

However, Mr Lansley, what are the questions for which you require evidence: Who ought to take the responsibility for dealing with the juvenile obesity epidemic? For the fact that so many children are not only dependent on fast food and junk food diets, but don't even know how to eat with a fork? For the fact that the least-advantaged children have the poorest diet?

The School Food Trust established in 2005, formerly chaired by Prue Leith, to monitor school catering has, thanks to the Chancellor George Osborne, just suffered a £1m cut - leaving it with only £7.5m in 2011. Yet this seems to be one of the few bodies able to supply the evidence Mr Lansley has requested.

And on 30 June their CEO said: "Following Jamie's School Dinners and the introduction of new standards in 2006, take-up has gone up over the past two years - reversing a 30-year decline."

Yes, indeed, we need an evidence-based approach. Yes, people need to take responsibility for their own health - but only up to a point, as the anti-smoking campaign shows. How is Mr Lansley going to take his (governmental) share of the responsibility for improving the diet of young people if he slags off the efforts of somebody who's really trying to do something about it? As Mr Cameron has said, what we need is a change in our food culture. Isn't that precisely what we chefs, including Jamie, try to achieve in our work every day, and what I have done for a long time?

RESPONSES TO LE BLOG

To be fair to Andrew Lansley, he did clarify his remarks about Jamie Oliver in a recent speech to the Faculty of Public Health conference. That is why, contrary to the media reporting, I applauded Jamie Oliver's initiative on school dinners and when he went to Rotherham - because Jamie "got it". He got that it's not just about a witch-hunt against saturated fats, salt and sugars. It's about creating a better understanding of, and relationship with, good food and diet. And even more, it's about self-confidence - it's about building self-esteem.
Evidence Matters

The new figures showing an increase in the proportion of schoolchildren eating school dinners are a vindication of the Jamie campaign and the nutritional standards brought in by the School Food Trust. Andrew Lansley's comments to the BMA were ill-informed and inaccurate. While the upturn in figures may seem modest, it is worth noting that in schools that made an effort the upturn was much more dramatic. Schools taking in part in the "Food for Life Partnership" programme saw a 16% increase in school meal uptake.
Jackie Schneider

I've always been lucky enough to be in a household where food is prepared from basic ingredients. First by my mother, then myself. I was quite shocked by Jamie's School Dinners. How can children not even recognise basic vegetables?

I believe the Government could do a lot worse than give Jamie £50m with the goal of improving the nation's health. He'd do a lot better than the bureaucrats that are currently mismanaging that role.
Alex Wright

PERCENTAGE TAKE-UP OF SCHOOL LUNCHES
	2009	2010	Change
Primary and secondary schools	39.3	41.4	2.1
Secondary Schools, academies and city technology colleges	35	35.8	0.8

SCHOOL MEALS MATTER

With the future of school meals finely poised, now is the time to show your support for our School Meals Matter campaign.

We already have thousands of signatories but, to make as big an impact as possible when we present it to the coalition Government at the end of this month, we want the entire industry behind us.

So if school meals matter to you, your business or your children sign our petition today.