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- How many kids eat school dinners?
Just under half of school kids have school dinners – 42% in primary and 43% in secondary (both have dropped from 45% last year).
- What about free school meals?
17% of primary children and 14% of secondary children are eligible for free school meals.
- How many meals get served?
About 3.25 million every day.
- How much does an average school meal cost?
£1.54 in primary and £1.62 in secondary, 4% more than a year ago (04/05). About half of the cost goes on labour.
- How much of the cost goes on food?
52p in primary and 68p in secondary.
- How much do packed lunches cost?
Parents say between £1.20 and £1.50.
- How may schools serve hot dinners?
72% can prepare a meal from scratch, this includes the majority (96%) of secondary schools. 5% can only heat up food (they have "regen" kitchens so the food is cooked off-site and heated up at the school). An estimated 20% of all schools, (3,500) mostly primaries, have no kitchen facilities, eg Lincolnshire.
Several councils do not have a hot meals service including: Dorset, Essex, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, West Sussex, Worcestershire.
- How much did the government announce last March for school meals?
TOTAL £280 million over three years 2005/06 – 2007/08:
- £15 million to fund the School Food Trust for three years
- £220 million for schools and local authorities over three years:
- £130 million for local authorities, £30m 2005, £50m in 2006 and 2007 (called the 5a grant, Lincolnshire got £382,000 and Greenwich £147,000 last year)
- £90 million for schools, £30m each year (called the 5b grant)
- Primaries get £1070 plus 50p per pupil
- Secondaries get £1500 plus 50p per pupil
To be spent on improving school meals in a sustainable way.
- £65 million from the lottery which has yet to be received.
- What capital is needed to implement the new school meal standards?
The estimated capital cost of refurbishing school kitchens so they can prepare food from scratch again is £290 million, but this only covers schools which already have a kitchen. The estimated cost of installing new kitchens would be £350 million (roughly 3,500 schools at £100,000 each for a new build according to the Government. We estimate a simple kitchen could be built for around £20,000.)
- Kitchens (especially those in secondary schools which have a meal service but have become particularly reliant on ready-prepared food) are also badly in need of an upgrade and new equipment like veg prep machines and potato peelers to enable them to handle fresh ingredients.
Sources
September 2006
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Jamie's Manifesto for:
Key Facts
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Are you concerned about your child's school dinners? Do you know what they serve? Do you know who to talk to or even who's in charge?
Channel 4 has produced a fantastic downloadable action pack specifically for parents.
We've got lots of advice on finding out about the quality of your child's school meals, ways to start a campaign for change and some simple ways to improve your child's general diet. |
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