Trust calls for January sales on school dinners

The Trust is urging more local authorities and schools to use special offers to tempt customers at a time of year when cash is particularly tight for parents. This move coincides with a new report which shows that any rise in price for school meals is likely to see a fall in the number of pupils buying them – with demand for school food more sensitive to price changes than other food products. The Trust's chief executive, Judy Hargadon, said: "This study underlines the importance of price for parents and pupils when making the choice to buy a school lunch. "We know that caterers are already working hard to keep costs down in a very tough trading environment. But if we want to make sure that more children have access to a well-balanced school lunch and that school meals can play their full part in improving children's health, we can't ignore what our customers are telling us about the price they're prepared to pay." The School Food Trust is already working with local authorities around the country to test the impacts of price incentives on school meal take up. Primary schools in York and Waltham Forest tested a series of week-long price offers in 2009 and suggested that the number of children eating a school lunch during the trials increased by 22% and 10% respectively. The School Food Trust is now working with schools in North Somerset to explore how one of those incentives, 'All Meals for £1', can sustain increased take up over a longer period. Meanwhile Bolton Council is currently offering school meals for £1 to all children in its primary schools during the spring term.