Children's Food Campaign dismayed by Health Secretary's criticism of healthy school meals

Children's Food Campaigners reacted strongly to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's criticisms of the healthy school meals initiative championed by health charities, children's groups, and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Christine Haigh of the Children's Food Campaign said:

“Andrew Lansley's comments are truly alarming. In a country suffering from record levels of childhood obesity, huge investments of time, effort and resources have been put into transforming school meals, not least by school caterers, so that children can eat well at lunch time, helping them to develop healthy eating habits and focus better on their lessons.”

“Whilst promoting freedom of choice, Mr Lansley appears to have missed the fact that the school food standards give children the choice of a healthy and nutritious school meal, something that was previously completely absent in many schools. Big Society is supposed to be about people taking the responsibility and initiative to make changes for the better, so why is our Health Secretary criticising Jamie Oliver's successful move to do just that?”

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For further information please contact Christine Haigh or Jackie Schneider on 0203 5596 777 / 07870 577934 (Christine) / 07795 213425 (Jackie) or christine@sustainweb.org / jackie@sustainweb.org. 

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Notes to editors:

1. The Children's Food Campaign wants to improve children's health and well-being through better food - and food teaching - in schools, and protecting children from junk food marketing. We are supported by over 300 organisations. The Children's Food Campaign is coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and funded by the British Heart Foundation. For more information please go to: http://www.childrensfoodcampaign.org.uk/
2. The comments were made by Andrew Lansley in a speech to a British Medical Association conference in Brighton.  A recording is available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10459744.stm.
3. Following concerns about the quality of the food being served in schools highlighted by Jamie Oliver in his 2005 series Jamie's School Dinners, there was a reduction in the number of children taking school meals.  However, following the introduction of the new standards, for the last two years school meal uptake has risen.  More information is available from the School Food Trust: see http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/news-events/news/school-food-trust-comment-on-the-impact-of-jamie-olivers-school-dinners
4. Research published in January in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that only one per cent of packed lunches met the nutritional standards for school meals. See http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2010/01/13/jech.2008.085977.abstract