What’s the big idea?

• Every school has the duty to provide a school meal for those children entitled to a free school meal and to any child that requests one.
  
• These school meals must meet basic minimum nutritional standards, including providing fruit and vegetables every day.
  
• School meals should be prepared, presented and promoted to ensure that healthy options get eaten.
  
• All schools can have the school meal budget delegated from the Local Education Authority to themselves.
  
• With delegated budgets the school meal service becomes the responsibility of the school management body.
  
• No school can say there is nothing they can do about their school meal service. .
  

Many primary schools are having their meals budgets delegated. Those that aren't can choose to have the meals budget delegated if they wish. All schools therefore have an important decision to make about their school meals service. In order to provide the best service possible they must become familiar with where their responsibilities lie and what options are open to them.

Details on what these options are and information on school catering contracts are provided in information bank 11.

The ideas provided on this information sheet are things that can be done to improve the lunchtime menu and promote the healthier options without necessarily making contractual changes.
Some schools involved in the Grab 5! pilot project took steps to improve the school meal service and lunch menus and found that relatively small changes can have significant impact in terms of uptake of healthier foods.

Several other schools found that, even without making any specific changes to the lunch time service, an outcome of doing Grab 5! was that children started to choose the healthier options. As one school reports:

"There has also been a noticeable shift in the children's choice of food at lunchtimes. More children are willing to try food that they have not tasted before and a lot more of them are choosing to eat salad and vegetables. They are also opting for the healthier option desserts."

Often parents, children and teachers are unhappy with the school meals on offer. Complaining about the school meal providers and the kitchen staff is not the solution. Communication with them often is. Meetings involving the school head, the school cook, the area catering manager, a dietitian and the Healthy Schools and/or Grab 5! coordinator can be very informative and useful.

School cooks are usually working under very restrictive conditions with tight budgets, limited time, basic equipment and set food items to choose from. Once these limitations are recognised, there are often several relatively easy things that can be done by the kitchen staff, teaching staff and school meal providers jointly to bring about positive change. In many cases, if school meal uptake can be increased children will benefit because, while perhaps not perfect, they are often better, in terms of nutrition and value for money, than the packed lunches being brought in.

Here are some of the ideas that schools came up with during the Grab 5! pilot project:

• Carry out a survey amongst children about their views on school meals.
  
• Send a letter and questionnaire to parents letting them know that the school is looking at school lunches and seeking their opinions
  
• Invite the school meal providers in to talk to the children about healthy eating and offer samples of the healthier choices
  
• Invite a community dietitian in to talk to the children about healthy eating
  
• Do classroom work with children about their favourite healthy lunch
  
• Investigate the option of offering sandwiches instead of cooked food so that the children on school meals can eat outside during summer months. (Lots of schools experience a drop in children taking up school meals during the summer as many want to be outside)
  
• Invite parents into school for a free school meal on a particular day, for example during health week
  
• Reorganise the seating arrangements so that children taking school meals can sit with their friends with packed lunches.
  
• Offer special theme meals, for example Halloween, Italian or Christmas meals. The school meal providers will probably have some special dates already planned.
  
• Stop fizzy drinks. This can be done on the grounds that they explode and cause a mess.
  
• Offer fruity shakes and smoothies for a small charge (they could be made by children and/or staff).
  
• Print out large menus and stick them in windows for parents to see.

There may also be opportunities to provide training on healthy eating for school kitchen staff. Training is anticipated as part of the Government commitments made to improving school meals in 2005. However, at the time of writing, details weren’t available. During the Grab 5! pilot project such training events were organised jointly by Grab 5!, the local school meals provider, the Healthy Schools programme and a community dietitian. For more details on these events contact Sustain, 020 7837 1228. The suggestions listed on the following page, 'How to get children grabbing five at lunchtime' were a result of these events. The page has been designed so that it can be printed off, enlarged and photocopied for use as a poster in the school kitchen.

The importance of a balanced diet for health and growth is included in the key stage 2 curriculum. Why not get pupils to design a healthy school meal, run a competition and arrange for the winning menu to be offered at lunchtime? Pupils could also create posters for the dining room promoting 5 a day, reinforcing the healthy food message at the same time as brightening up the dining room.

At the time of writing primary school lunches must contain at least one item from each of the following food groups:

• Starchy foods such as rice, pasta, bread and potatoes (chips and other starches cooked in oil no more than three times a week).
  
• Both a fruit and a vegetable available everyday. Fruit based desserts at least twice a week.
  
• Meat, fish and alternatives. Red meat must be served at least twice a week. Fish must be served at least once a week. Cheese can be included in this group.
  
• Milk and dairy foods.

The Government has made a commitment to revising these standards with new ones, probably nutrient-based, anticipated in September 2005. For the latest information visit www.dfes.gov.uk/schoollunches.

At no extra cost to the school, Greenwood Primary School now serve healthier school meals that are agreed weekly by the school cook and the head, with input from school council. The number of times chips are served in a week has been reduced to just once and water is now served instead of squash. Teachers offer rewards in class to children who choose a healthy lunch and the head teacher and deputy head teacher continue to monitor children's choices. The lunch time supervisors have been trained to encourage healthy choices.

Farsley Fairfield Primary School comments on changes made to the seating arrangements:

"Children can now stay with their friends and this really helps keep numbers. The staff were against the new arrangements at first but now it is quite quick."

And the outcome of holding a special menu day:

"uptake increases by approximately forty children but this does drop off after the event"

Brudenell Primary School comments on inviting parents in:

"Parents were invited to come in and join their children for lunch on certain days and this proved to be a very social occasion with table cloths, daffodils and music. The parents thoroughly enjoyed this and couldn't believe how good the school meals were. Numbers definitely increased."

More Information The Caroline Walker Trust publication, ‘Nutrient-based standards for school food’ provides widely respected standards and guidelines. Details are available on www.cwt.org.uk. The Chips are Down - A Guide to Food Policy in Schools is available from the Health Education Trust, on 01789 773915, priced £10.00. www.healthedtrust.com The Feed me Better Campaign, led by Jamie Oliver, provides healthy, unprocessed recipes for schools meals, lesson plans and information on how to improve the school meal service. Packs for schools are available for £14.50. Visit www.feedmebetter.com or call 08712225678. Food for Life, is a programme for schools, led by the Soil Association, that aims to increase the amount of local, organic and unprocessed food in school meals. Information and curriculum materials are available from www.foodforlifeuk.org. Healthy School Lunches for Pupils in Primary Schools - a guidance for shool caterers on implementing national nutritional standards is available from Department for Education and Skills Publications 0845 6022260 and to download at www.dfes.gov.uk/schoollunches. Hungry For Success - A report produced by the Scottish Executive providing guidance on a whole school approach and menu planning advice. Copies available from www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/hfs.pdf. Primary Choice is a specialist company that can help schools set up their own school meals service and discuss how they might buy good, locally produced food. For more information contact Jeanette Orrey, 07973345475, info@primarychoice.co.uk or visit the Primary Choice website, www.primarychoice.co.uk. Info Bank 3: Healthy eating guidelines, info bank 4: Nutritional standards for school lunches, info bank 8: Do a survey, info bank 11: Responsibility for providing school meals.