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A towering example of free school meals for all

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08 November 2022

At Food for Life, we know that caterers are the army behind serving good food to schools across the country. Throughout the pandemic, Brexit and now further price rises due to the cost of living, caterers continue to serve hot school meals to school pupils.  

The cost-of-living crisis has seen costs go up not just for caterers, but for families too. The need for a healthy, hot school meal is vital this winter, and there are too many children missing out.  

ll children in reception, year 1 and year 2 (Foundation and Key Stage 1) are eligible for free school meals. However, above this age, it is only some children whose family are in receipt of benefits (e.g. Universal Credit) who are eligible. Broadly speaking, it is only households with a combined income of less than £7,400 a year.  

We estimate that there are 800,000 children living in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals. 

Free school meals for all in Tower Hamlets 

Thanks to funding by the Mayor and Public Health, all Key Stage 2 pupils receive a free school meal in Tower Hamlets Primary Schools. Tower Hamlets serves approximately 16,500 meals a day to 57 schools and nurseries.  1400 meals are freshly cooked each day in a Central Production Unit and are delivered to schools with limited or no cooking facilities.  

“The council funds all school meals for Key Stage 2, which results in a very high take up for us. There is a great dining room atmosphere in schools with all the children eating and enjoying similar food, and we are able to achieve economies of scale in everything and that is really important.” 

Rob Percival, Head of Policy, Food and Health at Soil Association, echoes this view. “Currently, uptake of school meals across the country is variable, affected by quality, accessibility and image. Increasing uptake of both free and paid for school meals, alongside reforms to school food funding mechanisms, will lead to a more economically efficient system, supporting caterers to invest in the future. It will ensure more children access more nutritious food, reduce stigma, and boost the benefits of a ‘whole school approach’. 

Andrea Hardy is the Catering Operations Manager at Ben Johnson Primary School, a school within the Tower Hamlets remit. They’ve shared how their school encourages all children to receive a hot school meal, which can help ensure that every child has access to good food. 

“Nearly all the children have a cooked meal because it’s free. We are trying to educate them about food as well as feeding them. We have taster sessions with the children and parents which helps with trying to get those with packed lunches to choose a school.” 
Cost Pressures 

Jenny explained that rising costs of all food and services are putting pressure on catering budgets – currently, the meal price charged is below the true cost of the meal.  

“We are getting letters from our main suppliers announcing price increases. There is no opportunity to negotiate with suppliers, we are just told the new price and often with only as much as two weeks’ notice – it makes forecasting practically impossible.  

“Shortages of basic items, such as bread, are common because ingredients such as maize and wheat starch have been adversely affected by the Ukraine/Russian conflict. We’re making multiple ingredient and food substitutions on a daily basis.” 

“We want to keep making good quality, healthy meals and retain our Food for Life award, we’re very proud of it. “ 

Adapting to the pressures 

Pauline Gati is the Kitchen Manager at the Central Production Unit that caterers for 15 Tower Hamlets schools and nurseries “We’ve never had a time like this where prices are rising so often” 

“If things change we will adapt, at the end of the day these children need their food so we need to find a way […] it’s hard to predict but we try to be more creative”  

Food for Life for Feed the Future  

We’re campaigning for our government to: 

  1. Expand eligibility for Free School Meals. This expansion should initially be to all children from families in receipt of universal credit, with further expansion to a universal approach to follow.  
  2. Carry out a wholesale review of school food policy, supporting cooks and caterers. This will be particularly key for increasing capacity of serving more school meals, and the future security of the system.

Support the extension for free school meals by signing the Biteback petition here. 

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