1870: Education Act makes it compulsory for all children to receive an elementary education. 1879: Manchester and Bradford provide free school meals to poor and malnourished children, recognising that many are too hungry to learn. The move is followed by the London School Board whose meals are free or very cheap. The Salvation Army and other organisations also play a part. 1899: A third of young men volunteering are too malnourished to fight in the Boer War prompting “A Committee on Physical Deterioration”. 1900: Children can get ‘Farthing Breakfasts’ from The Salvation Army. 1906: The Education (Provision of Meals) Act allows but doesn’t require Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to provide school meals. 1921: The Education Act 1921 sets out the circumstances under which children qualify for free school meals, but the costs were prohibitive and many children who qualified did not receive meals. 1939: Less than half of Local Authorities (LAs) are providing school meals. 130,000 meals served daily reaching only 3% of the school population. 1940: New guidelines in response to World War II expanded the school meals service, including the first nutritional standards in 1941. 1944: The Education Act 1944 makes school meal provision statutory for all LEAs. They also had to provide milk. 1945: 1.6m meals served daily to a third of school children. 14% free, the rest charged at 4d or 5d covering cost of ingredients. LAs were subsidised between 75% and 90%. Plans by the new Labour government for universal free school meals were scrapped due to cost. 1946: Universal free milk introduced. 1951: Children have more calories and fat than today’s children and a 1999 study shows that they had higher calcium and iron intakes, more green veg and potatoes and less sugar than children in the 90’s. 1953: A price increase from 7d to 9d sees uptakes fall. 1955: A government circular updates advice on nutritional standards and suggests content and quantity should make it sufficient to serve as the main meal of the day. 1957: The cost of a school meal rises to one shilling and no longer only covers the cost of ingredients. 1967: Full financial responsibility for school meals passes to LEAs allowing more freedom over provision and pricing. 1968: Milk to secondary school children ends. A series of price rises over previous years sees school dinners costing 1s9d. 1973: As Secretary of State for Education, Margaret Thatcher brings in a series of price rises which with the new decimalisation go up to 14p. She earns the ‘Milk Snatcher’ title for further reductions in free milk which is withdrawn entirely in 1979. 1980: Nutritional standards abolished. LEAs no longer obliged to provide meals except to those children entitled to free school meals. Commercial Competitive Tendering introduced forcing LAs to choose the cheapest contractor. To maximise profit many schools switch from traditional plated meals to free choice cafeterias. Popular choices like burgers and chips prevail. 1988: The 1986 Social Security Act removes eligibility for free school meals from half a million children and with increased prices uptakes continue to fall. LACA – The Local Authority Caterer’s Association is formed in 1989. 1992: Declining quality sees The School Meals Campaign call for nutritional standards to be re-introduced. The Caroline Walker Trust charity establish an Expert Working Group on Nutritional Guidelines. 1997: New Labour come to power. A series of reports - including from the new Food Standards Agency - detail the increasingly poor diets of children and the growth of childhood obesity. 1999: Voluntary nutritional guidelines based on food groups and numbers of times certain foods could be served are circulated based on the Expert Working Group’s recommendations. 2001: Minimum nutritional standards for school meals are made statutory. Responsibility for meeting the standards rests with school governing bodies. 2002: Jeanette Orrey, a school cook, begins to campaign for better meals and The Food for Life Partnership is originated, attracting the attention of Jamie Oliver. 2003: Monitoring of school caterers to ensure they’re meeting the standards commences. 2005: Jamie’s School Dinners airs on Channel 4 and a media uproar ensues. The government is forced to act immediately. The School Food Trust is established. 2006: Compulsory national food-based standards are rolled out, followed by the stringent nutritional standards in 2007. These set minimum daily amounts of thirteen nutrients and minerals. A programme to re-skill school cooks is implemented. 2010: New Academies and later Free Schools are exempted from the standards while Ofsted is assessing all other schools for their adherence to the standards. 2012: LEON restaurant owners Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent are asked by the coalition government to report on school food. They return the School Food Plan in 2013. 2014: Universal free school meals made available for all Key Stage 1 children from September. New, easier to follow standards based on food groups are tested for rolling out.