Hmm, what's it to be? A lentil korma with brown rice and salad, then fruit and
a yoghurt for afters, or a High School Musical bag stuffed with crisps and a
couple of bars of chocolate? It sounds absurd but in some schools children
sitting next to eat other could be eating such contrasting lunches.
While school dinners have come on nutritionally in leaps and bounds, and
thanks to more money for ingredients and training for the dinner ladies,
they taste a whole lot better too, there's nothing to stop pupils in many
schools bringing in junk from home. A survey last year lifted the lid on
lunchboxes to reveal the unappetising truth: what's inside them contains too
much saturated fat and up to half the daily allowance of of salt. [Kids
under 7 should have no more than 3g of salt a day.] Salads are scarce and
only half the children brought in a portion of fruit and vegetables.
Children who aren't eating school dinners are losing out - that's about 60 per
cent of primary school kids. And this is why, as part of the Government's
attempt to tackle obesity, Alan Johnson, the Health Minister, has suggested
that schools should check lunchbox contents.
The School Food Trust, the body set up by the Government to turn round school
dinners, suggest drawing up a policy for packed lunches - a few basic rules
to bring them in line with a healthier school environment - and make
sticking to it part of a code that parents have to agree to. Others say it
is impossible for schools to police what children bring in to eat. Margaret
Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations,
says: “Many parents in this country will feel that it is their decision what
they feed their children.”
Joe Harvey, of the Health Education Trust, a charity involved in the Better
School Food campaign, agrees. “You can't search kids for Kit Kats,” he says.
So what can schools do about it? “There has to be a process of education and
consultation or they'll get the burgers-through-the-fence brigade. It should
be part of a whole school food policy.” He advises schools to build food
rules into any contract the school makes with new parents; do everything
possible to make sure children know what's going on in the school kitchen;
and make the meal service as attractive as possible.
Meanwhile, the schools below have different ways of giving chocolate and
crisps the cold shoulder in packed lunches . . .
THE HILL PRIMARY, BARNSLEY, SOUTH YORKSHIRE
“If we banned chocolate it would cause an uproar,” admits Sue Miller, a
teaching mentor at The Hill Primary School in Barnsley, where 46 per cent of
children qualify for free school meals. So although 60 per cent of children
eat school food, and everything is being done to encourage more to follow
suit, it leaves a 150-strong packed-lunch bunch.
Such is the unwelcome contrast between the wholesome meal provided by the
school, and the array of chocolate, crisps and sugary drinks some kids bring
in, that the two groups eat separately. After such a lunch, it's no wonder
some of those who bring their own are on the ceiling in the afternoon.
Miller admits too that many pupils suffer from poor dental health. Rather
than being obese, some children seem malnourished, and while helping them to
eat better is a priority for the school, heavy-handed measures could be
counter-productive.
Instead of laying down the law about lunch they've taken a different tack:
offering parents help. One afternoon a week, for a month, a group of ten
learnt to make sandwiches, wraps and pasta salads with a
community-health-funded trainer. Smoked mackerel, mayonnaise and sweetcorn
was a revelation to mums more used to slipping a couple of chocolate bars
into a lunchbox. As Miller says: “Once you break down the barriers, it's
very easy to engage; they see us as supporting them.”
One boy who refused to eat fruit now relishes the cream cheese, ham and banana
wrap his mum has been making since the course. Other parents are attending
“cook and eat” training sessions held outside the school, which also helps
to pave the way for the packed-lunch policy the school is about to
introduce. After six months' consultation with staff, families and children
- who've been surveying the contents of the lunchboxes - this will be the
next step towards giving every child a better chance of a healthy meal in
the middle of the day.
“In this area, a ban wouldn't work. You have to be tactful, and I can't
see it being easy, but parents are taking on board the effect of fizzy
drinks on behaviour,” says Sue. Perhaps one day chocolate will be history at
The Hill without the school ever having to issue an edict.
Allenbourne Middle School, Dorset
The fact that 99 per cent of pupils at Allenbourn Middle School in Dorset
bring in packed lunch is no reflection on the school dinners. There aren't
any. When the school was rebuilt a few years ago the decision was taken not
to allow for a kitchen and the 1 per cent of children who qualify for free
school meals are provided with a healthy packed lunch by the local authority.
With no healthy hot meal to compare with the home-made offerings, it's just as
important that the 600 9 to 13-year-olds understand what makes a good lunch.
And not having anything cooked at school hasn't held back the children's
food education. The school, rated outstanding by Ofsted, also has Healthy
School Status, despite an apparently laissez-faire approach to what's in the
lunchboxes. Biscuits, crisps and chocolate are all allowed. “If parents want
to give kids a load of rubbish, we've got better things to do than ban
crisps, but we appeal to their better instincts,” says Derek Brooks, the
deputy head.
Carol Catton, the health education co-ordinator, agrees: “As soon as you say,
‘Thou shalt not have . . .' they want it. We don't expect them to come in
with just carrots and grapes. A chocolate bar is allowed, if the rest of the
balance is there.” She says persuasion, cajoling and giving information
about what constitutes a healthy lunch is what works best.
Only fizzy drinks are banned. Even then, the school doesn't put it quite like
that. “We would not expect the kids to have them,” Catton says. “But I
wouldn't tell a child what they had was wrong, I'd ask them what else they
were having during the day.”
Any parent running out of good ideas has a source of inspiration - other
children's examples of healthy lunchboxes. In response to a survey carried
out by the Parents' Association they wrote, photographed and illustrated
recipes for wraps, pasta salads, smoothies, soup and sandwiches for an
eye-catching booklet of ideas.
There are nutritional tips and shopping lists to help harassed parents on the
supermarket trawl. Just like Jasmine's scrumptious cheese scones, it has
gone down a treat.
Petchey Academy, Hackney, East London
At the Petchey Academy in Hackney, school meals are compulsory. What's more
there's no choice. If it's smoked mackerel biryani, that's what the children
eat, unless they have signed up for the vegetarian option. It helps that the
school started from scratch only 18 months ago, and the pioneering
13-year-olds, the first of two years, have never known anything else.
“Before we opened, we made it a policy that food would be one of the central
pillars of what we were trying to achieve,” explains the school's food
manager, John Liversidge, a chef, who also teaches cookery to the children.
Parents must agree to the rules before their child starts at the school, and
one of the conditions is no packed lunches, no snacks and only fruit to be
brought into school. If a class goes on a trip, they take a packed lunch
made by the school. Serving the midday meal at tables, family-style,
teachers sitting with the children, encourages sociability, sharing and
table manners. As Liversidge says: “They should learn to use a knife and
fork.” And packed lunches, let alone bags of crisps, don't allow for this.
Draycott Primary School, Derby
When head teacher Helen Knott asked parents to desist from putting crisps in
lunchboxes, Draycott Primary School, in Derby, made headlines. But not for
the reasons she would have wished. As part of its effort to improve food
quality and education, the school sent out a packed-lunch policy to parents,
which included a note from the governors requesting an end to crisps.
Chocolate bars had been made unwelcome a couple of years earlier and
children had been successfully encouraged to bring in fruit instead. Knott
applauds the chip-free school dinners but the majority of children bring in
packed lunches, which may occasionally consist of nothing more than three
bags of crisps. “Such poor provision affects how children perform,” Knott
remarks.
A handful of disgruntled parents went to the local paper and their objections
were duly reported as a mass rebellion. They pointed to the puddings
available as part of the healthy school lunches and cried foul. A parent was
quoted as saying: “I object to Josh's lunchbox being policed in this way. I
prefer to say what he has.”
Knott insists that this small group of vocal parents isn't representative.
Most parents support the school policy. With crisps and chocolate off limits
for lunch, Knott insists, “the children are picking up the message. It is
not our policy to upset a child and make them feel they shouldn't be eating
something. Often it's other children who put their hands up to let us know
someone has crisps. Then we send a little slip home asking parents to please
refrain.” And, now, even the rebels comply.
