The benefits
 of good healthy food in schools

Diet-related illnesses are putting a huge strain on the nations NHS budget: up to £10 billion every year. LACA believes that every child across the UK should have the same opportunity to access a nutritious meal, irrespective of the type of school in which they are educated.
    
LACA wants equality and accessibility for pupils that will help them make the right food choices and understand the importance of food and the need for a varied diet.

Breakfast clubs in schools
With reports suggesting that a growing number of children are arriving at school hungry, the role of school food, including breakfast clubs in schools is more vital than ever before.
    
Ensuring that the most nutritionally vulnerable children in our society have the opportunity to have a daily breakfast and a hot nutritious school lunch is absolutely essential.
    
The quality of food in schools has significantly improved and is attributed to the two sets of standards that were introduced and became legislation six/seven years ago. These superseded all previous legislation that applied to school food.

Food standards
Food-based standards defines the types of food which are no longer allowed or are restricted, in order to replace food high in fat, sugar and salt with more nutritious food and drinks.
    
Nutrient-based standards aim to make the food offered healthier by increasing the vitamin and mineral content and decreasing fat, saturated fat, non-milk extrinsic sugars and sodium content.
    
There are 14 nutrients that school food has to by law incorporate into the weekly menu offered to the children and young people.
    
Many parents think that a packed lunch is the healthiest option. It’s quite the reverse as it’s easier to get the necessary nutrients into a cooked meal. Only one per cent of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards that currently apply to school food.

Subsidised service
The take up of school food currently averages at about 48 per cent across the UK and is continuing to grow. However, to be financially viable, the service needs to be at least 50-55 per cent otherwise it will need to be subsidised by either school budgets or local council funding.
    
Increasing take up requires a cultural change in school that has the support and commitment from the headteacher, the governing body and the leadership team in school. Food needs to be cooked that is nutritious, appetising and attractive to the pupils. It needs to be served and eaten in dining halls that have a calm and welcoming ambience.
    
Like any of us, young people also detest queuing and therefore there are ways to reduce the queuing times such as vending machines that have healthy options that are strategically positioned in the school.

Cashless systems
Many schools and organisations that are school food providers use cashless systems. These systems speed up service times as no cash is needed at the point of service.
    
Incentives can be used for pupils who build up ‘healthy eating’ points and prizes can be given for those with the most points in a particular determined period.
    
The system can keep special dietary, medical or ethnic needs and requirements for the pupil and can provide alerts if a pupil has inadvertently selected an item that they are unable to have.
    
Another advantage to this system is that parents can request a ‘print out’ of their child’s choices on a daily/weekly basis if required.
    
There has been a welcome announcement from government that cooking will be featured on the curriculum. This will help our young people understand where food comes from and be able to grow and cook healthy food.
    
In July 2012, the education secretary Michael Gove, commissioned John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby to review school food.
    
The aim was for them to produce an action plan that addressed how to get children eating well in school and what role cooking and food should play more broadly in school life.

Objectives of the School food plan
The School Food Plan was launched in July 2013 and contains a series of actions, each of which is the responsibility of a named person or organisation. The clear objective of the Plan is to increase the uptake of school meals.

The 17 actions provide details of what needs to happen to transform how children can eat  well at school and how they learn about food.
    
It includes the pleasures of growing, cooking and eating good food. It is also about improving the academic performance of our children and young people and the health of the nation.
    
It is clear from the School Food Plan that headteachers are the only people who can truly lead the revolution in school food.
    
There is a checklist provided to help them start to turn round their food service. I personally think that this is the biggest announcement that will have such a positive effect in our sector of the catering industry that I can ever remember.

The benefits of good food
I truly believe that this will be the start of a social change in this country in that children and young people will understand from an early age where food comes from and by giving them a nutritious meal in school, they will understand and appreciate the benefits of good food.
    
LACA is absolutely delighted by the announcement two weeks ago that all infant schoolchildren (aged five to seven) will receive free school meals from September 2014 in England. Monies will also be available for the devolved governments. However, it is up to the governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as to whether they follow suit.
    
The English announcement provides a huge boost for the education catering industry and will be very welcome for school food providers.
    
We hope that funds will be made available to ensure that all schools have the necessary facilities to provide hot nutritious food in England. Of course, there will be challenges in some schools in terms of eating space availability, sufficient cooking equipment, the necessity to introduce additional lunch sittings to cope with the additional meal numbers, etc. However, in the true spirit of a whole school approach, by working together solutions will be found to resolve these.
    
This is a huge step forward and a significant opportunity that will make a massive difference to children in terms of health, attainment and social mobility.

Financial difficulties
There have been many reports in recent weeks on the financial difficulties faced by families and the impact this has had on children’s diets. This announcement will be a great relief to those who are struggling to make ends meet, with initial estimates suggesting that families will save on average £400 per child.
    
AS LACA members provide in the region of three million lunches in schools across the UK every day, this announcement will provide opportunities and will enable them to increase the uptake of school meals, which is a business goal for all involved in school meals.

Further information
www.laca.co.uk
www.schoolfoodplan.com