Teachers get creative to boost school meal uptake

One of St Peter's C.E. Primary School's ideas is a 'Rainbow Table' for school meals customers, offering children buying school lunches the chance to sit at a specially-decorated table in the middle of the dining room if they've behaved well. The prize also comes with a pass to jump to the front of the lunch queue and first pick of fresh fruit and salad. At the end of each week, a draw is made to select six pupils to dine at the table for Friday lunch. The initiative prompted interest from pupils bringing packed lunches, who began to ask if they could sit at the 'Rainbow Table' too. The school subsequently noted an increase in take-up of school lunches, and 50% of pupils are now choosing school meals – with the number continuing to rise. Additional ideas being planned by St. Peter's include a reorganisation of the seating area to reduce queuing time and the introduction of daily menus in each classroom. St. Peter's introduced the scheme after signing up to the School Food Trust's Small Step Improvements programme, which offers schools and local authorities free support to understand the reasons why more pupils aren't taking a school lunch and developing low or no-cost ideas to tackle them in each individual school. The school's success has been highlighted by the School Food Trust, the organisation charged with transforming school food and food skills, after it saw a 10% increase in take up of school lunches since it began testing low or no-cost ideas to encourage more children to give school lunch a try. Lesley Cairns, delivery manager for the Trust, said: "St Peter's experiences show how schools can make even very small changes to their lunchtime set-up to encourage more children to give school lunch a try."