Parents aren’t usually allowed into school canteens at lunchtime – and I suspect there is a good reason for this. I already knew my son’s primary school lunches weren’t high-quality fare, with the menu largely consisting of a rotation of pasta, sausages, burger, pizza, fish fingers and a “roast dinner” featuring a thin slice of chicken or turkey.
But I had no idea quite how bad these options really were until I accidentally got a glimpse of what schoolchildren actually get fed, when I had to pick him up early for a hospital appointment last year.
When I arrived, my son, who is in Year 1 at a state primary in south-east England, was still queuing up for lunch. A member of staff picked up his meal for him and took both of us into an empty classroom so he could quickly eat before leaving for the appointment.
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I was horrified when I saw what was on his tray: a tiny, dry blob of burger meat in the middle of a dry white roll, accompanied by four small potato wedges, a few very overcooked, grey-coloured string beans and a teaspoon of hard, dry sweetcorn. It was a meal I’d struggle to stomach as an adult, let alone as a fussy child.
Alongside the meagre main course was a large slice of sponge cake and custard, which he had no trouble wolfing down.
The Government has announced plans to overhaul school dinners, stopping “grab and go” options like sausage rolls and pizza from being available every day; limiting sweetened desserts to one day per week; replacing other desserts with fruit; ensuring each meal comes with vegetables or a salad; and including more wholegrains on menus.
It sounds like a well-needed change, but a previous policy in 2015 made similar promises: these pledges are often ignored because it is too expensive to implement amid budget cuts and the rising cost of food. Some school leaders have expressed doubts that the latest proposals will be effective without more funding, which is not being offered by ministers.
And it seems unlikely to make a difference when school caterers so often seem to fail to meet the basic standards of cooking food properly. While my son’s burger meal was overcooked, I’ve heard plenty of other horror stories of raw, stuck together pasta and hard jacket potatoes.
It’s frustrating – especially as I know it doesn’t have to be this way.
As a student in the mid-2000s, I spent an academic year working in a French secondary school, where the meals couldn’t have been more different. The school was in a deprived and isolated rural area, yet the canteen served three courses of food good enough for most UK restaurants. Every lunchtime, I witnessed my students happily deboning a side of fish, tucking into partridge or whipping the heads off king prawns.
It feels a world away from the UK Government’s latest “radical” proposals to cut out sausage rolls and introduce a bit of salad or vegetables on the side.
Food is taken very seriously in French culture and school dinners are no exception. The average cost of providing a school meal in France is about £6.38 per pupil, but this is heavily subsidised by both local and national government, meaning parents pay between around €1 and €5 (87p to £4.35) per meal depending on their income.
By contrast, the UK Government allocates just £2.61 per pupil to fund free school meals in England (the rate is £3 in London). Last year, a survey by the The School Food People LACA, which represents the sector, found it cost schools an average of £3.45 to deliver a meal – around a third more than the funding schools received. It also warned portion sizes were shrinking and meals contained less meat and cheaper ingredients due to rising costs.
Scrimping on meals inevitably has an impact on their quality. As I sat watching my son eat his miserable burger, the staff member confided that teachers often clashed with the caterers over the dwindling portions given to children. Sausage and mash servings had reduced from two sausages to one, for example. “The pasta portions are so tiny, we tell them they just have to give more – especially to the older children,” they added.
While my son’s highly-rated school teaches children about the importance of healthy eating, their hands are tied when it comes to the meals that they are served. All schools in the area use the same council-contracted caterer, which supplies the same weekly menu, featuring a depressingly similar rotation of carb-based meals.
But while my son can easily end up eating pasta with some form of tomato sauce two or three times a week, meals in French schools must also be balanced across the month. For example, by law, out of every 20 meals served, at least four must be fish-based and no more than four starters can contain more than 15 per cent fat.
The French education system also views dinnertimes as a vital part of the school day – not an interruption to it. Children sit down together at a table, because spending time communally over a meal is viewed as a vital part of human communication. They are encouraged to eat a wide variety of different foods and to learn about where food comes from.
Specific laws ensure meals are balanced and must contain a protein-based main course, side dish, dairy product (such as a cheese course) and an optional starter or dessert. School lunches in the UK are also required to include protein, oily fish, dairy, and fruit and vegetables – the problem is they too often come in the form of cheap ingredients, poorly cooked by poorly paid staff.
The result is that a huge amount ends up in the bin: primary schools in England generate a staggering 55,408 tonnes of food waste annually, while secondary schools contribute 24,974 tonnes, researchers say. The cost has been estimated at £250,000 a year.
Yet UK school meals are high in refined carbs, like white bread and pasta, and low in nutrients and iron – meaning they don’t sustain children enough for them to concentrate properly throughout the day, says nutritionist and author Karen Newby. “Our school dinners are very beige, but children need variation,” she explains. “The more beige food they get, the fussier they can become about trying other foods.”
She believes it comes down to costs. “Quality protein can be much more expensive than refined carbs or heavily-processed foods,” she says. Newby would love to see more beans on school menus, which are a cheap and sustainable source of protein.
While she welcomes the latest proposals from UK ministers, she questions what difference they will make. “It’s brilliant the Government is recognising that school food should be sustainable, nutritious and delicious,” she says. “I just hope there is some inspired menu planning to get kids on board, rather than just adding a side serving of limp salad which won’t get eaten.”
In Britain, where we are increasingly worried about both children’s attention levels in school and their weight (30 per cent of British children are overweight or obese, compared to fewer than 16 per cent in France), it seems bizarre that we are not investing heavily in improving school meals.
Because while parents can opt to provide their children with packed lunches, ensuring these are healthy, varied and nutritious takes time and money that many families can ill-afford – especially considering school meals are free for children up to Year 3 in most of England, and Year 6 in London.
My family is sticking with school dinners for now and putting effort instead into ensuring my son has a healthy home-cooked dinner. But with both parents often working late, it’s not always easy. At least my son isn’t bothered by all the beige food. His verdict on school dinners is: “It looks sad and boring, but it’s actually quite yummy.”
Dining and Cooking