A Brief History of School Meals
13 September, 2011
School meals were provided as a charitable act from the mid-nineteenth century and expanded after the 1870 Education Act amid rising concerns about undernourished children. By 1945, 1.6 million meals were being provided, 14% free and the rest charged at the cost of ingredients.
School meal provision was made compulsory by the 1944 Education Act. This made it a statutory duty rather than optional entitlement for local authorities.
These provisions were removed by the 1980 Education Act. The act removed the requirement to provide school meals of any nutritional standard. The only statutory requirement was to provide meals to eligible children of families on income support. Additionally, school meals were opened up to Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT), obliging local authorities to open services to private sector competition and award contracts to the most ‘competitive’ offer.
In the last few years, attention has been refocused on health issues, with a particular focus on obesity. Public interest in the nutritional quality of meals served to children was sparked off in February 2005 by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, bringing the issue into the May 2005 general election.
With this came a new set of government initiatives, including:
- a pledge of 50p per day per primary child (60p per secondary child) for ingredients
- a new School Food Trust
- new minimum nutritional standards, and
- powers for OFSTED to inspect school meals.
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