New figures just published from the Department for Education’s annual school census suggest more support is needed to help make sure every child who qualifies for a free school meal opts to take it.
The Children’s Food Trust charity has responded saying that creating a great lunchtime experience for all children in schools is key to increasing the take up of free school meals – both among children who qualify for benefits-based free school meals and among infants, who all have the option of a free lunch.
The charity's Head of Research, Jo Nicholas, said, “We welcome the news that more than 1.6 million infant school children are continuing to access a healthy school lunch through the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme: good food at lunchtime improves children’s focus in class and is helping to build healthy habits for life.
However, it’s a big concern that nearly 15 per cent of infants still aren’t taking up the free meal that they’re entitled to.
“The census also shows quite a fall since last year in the proportion of children at primary school who qualify for free school meals, but aren’t taking them up (from 86.7% to 82.9%). This is a real worry and in the coming months we want to look into the reasons for this – we don’t want any child living in poverty to miss out on a nutritious meal at school.
'Not only does it help improve their focus in class, but it can be their only proper meal of the day – particularly important when so many families are struggling to make their food budgets stretch.'
Nicholas concluded, “We know some schools still struggle to provide a great lunchtime experience and the forthcoming childhood obesity strategy has a big opportunity to look at the role of school food in improving children’s health, and the support that schools still need to play their full part.”