The report titled ‘Feeding Our Future’ is accompanied by four state of the nation sub-reports which provide more detail about school food provision in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Rebecca Tobi, Peas Please project manager at The Food Foundation said: “School food standards need to be updated, monitored and enforced. School mealtimes provide a great opportunity to support children to eat fruit and veg which they need to protect their health, but too many schools are not serving enough veg, and the current small size of the school fruit and veg scheme is a missed opportunity to drive up consumption.
“In Scotland and Northern Ireland – standards require two portions of veg to be served in each school lunch but in England and Wales it’s only one. Ensuring all children are fed a nutritious meal at school is a great way to support their learning and future health.”
The ‘VEGtigation’ into school food found vegetable intake is the lowest in Northern Ireland where primary school aged children eat an average of just one portion of vegetables a day. Just 6% of secondary school children are currently meeting the Eatwell Guide’s recommended daily intake of vegetables.
A recent 2021 Food Foundation YouGov poll found that 34% of young people never eat in the school canteen. Around 35% said it was because they didn’t like the food, 20% because it didn’t represent good value for money and 16% said it wasn’t affordable.
Simon Kenton-Lake, senior officer at Nourish Scotland and lead author of the ‘Feeding Our Future’ report, added: “One of the key recommendations in our report is the roll out of free school meals to all primary and secondary school children right across the UK.
“Access to good food should be a right not a privilege, irrespective of where you live or how much your family earns - and when we talk about ‘good food’ we mean food that nourishes not only our children but also our local communities, economies and the environment.”