East Sussex schools get free lunches during National School Meals Week

The offer is being run through the county council's meals contractor, Chartwells and is being funded with a School Food Trust grant. Cllr David Elkin, the County Council's Lead Member for Learning and School Effectiveness said: "We want to use this opportunity to tempt more children in our schools to eat a school lunch. They are affordable, healthy and are a far cry from the school meals I grew up with." Currently about 11,000 meals are served to pupils in 160 primary schools in East Sussex each day. This means about 31% of primary pupils in the county enjoy school lunch but the council is hoping the complimentary taster will see that figure rise. Cllr Elkin added: "There are a lot of myths about school dinners and they've always got bad press. But the reality is far from that. We hope that if we can encourage more children to try a meal they'll realise what they are missing." The school meals contract is delivered in East Sussex by Chartwells and meet stringent nutritional guidelines issued by Government. At a cost of £1.87 a child can receive a lunch that guarantees they will get half of their five recommended portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The complimentary school meals will be phased in the week starting Monday 9th November and a leaflet will be sent to parents to let them know of the offer. With the leaflet will be a short survey to ask parents their views on school meals and the service schools offer. Cllr Elkin said: "If we can get more young people eating and enjoying a hot dinner it will be money well spent. They say there's no such thing as a free lunch but in this particular case, there definitely is!"