School Dinners
Group C Presentation
Dec 2006
Taz Aldawoud, Mark Cade, Lisa Coulter, Richard Haddad, Aneela Malik, Tan Rafiq
Aim
• To explore the issues raised by the September 2006 ‘School
Dinners’ item, including the implications for General Practice
The main internet headline on BBC’s Look
North 15th September 2006, stated:
“Parents who are opposed to the
introduction of healthy meals at a South
Yorkshire school have held a meeting with
its deputy head teacher. Some parents of
Rawmarsh Comprehensive pupils have
been taking orders for fish and chips and
delivering it through the fence at the
Rotherham school”.
Parents feed pupils through gates
Pupils at a South Yorkshire school
are being fed fish and chips
through the gates by parents who
say the canteen is not providing
what their children want.
Students at Rawmarsh Comprehensive
are not allowed out of the grounds at
lunchtime, so some parents are taking
their orders for the chip shop instead.
They say pupils are not being given
enough time or choice for their meals.
But the school said it aimed to provide good quality food that helped pupils to
concentrate in the afternoons.
Julie Critchlow is one of the parents who delivers pupils' orders from the
grounds of a neighbouring cemetery in Rotherham while the school gates are
locked. "The children aren't eating what the school provide in the cafeteria
because they don't like the quality of the food," she said.
Objectives
•
To gain an overview of child nutrition
•
To gain insight into childrens’ ideas on what foods they think are healthy
•
To gain an overview of the political and organizational issues relating to
school meals provision
•
To address parents’ understanding/views on health eating and good
nutrition
•
To be able to apply what we have learnt today in the GP consultation
•
To consider how GP services might contribute to improving child nutrition
•
To have fun
What Children Really Eat!
•
Survey of 20 kids
•
Age range from 4 to 16
•
Questioned during GP consultation
•
Asked three simple questions:
1.
What did you have for lunch today?
2.
What is your favourite food?
3.
What food do you consider to be healthy?
What Children Really Eat
Results
•
Not one child had chips for their lunch!
•
However, the food favoured by most children was chips! (10 out of 20
children)
•
11 out of the 14 children who had a school dinner mentioned having at
least one vegetable with their main meal
•
Only 2 of these 14 children had ‘deep fried food’ for main meal i.e. nuggets
or burger
•
Of the 2 Asian children interviewed, both had ‘traditional English’ meals
which had been cooked with halal meat
•
All children answered either fruit or salad to a healthy type of food
•
Interestingly, all primary school children answered ‘apple’ to a healthy type
of food
What Children Really Eat!
Other information volunteered
• The majority of children, 14 out of 20, had a school dinner rather
than packed lunch
• All children who had a school dinner were given a choice of two
main meals
• Parents of 4 of the primary school children are actually invited to
have lunch at their child’s school on a daily basis
• Some children actually felt too unwell to eat their lunch, hence the
reason they were at the Docs!
What Kids Really Eat!
What Can We Summarise From This Information?
•
The Bradford schools catering for the children that we surveyed seem to be
providing healthy choices for school dinners
•
Despite the schools’ efforts, most children still prefer ‘fatty foods’, with chips,
McDonalds, and chocolate topping the charts
•
The only foods considered by the children as being healthy were fruit and
vegetables
Do children really know what types of food are nutritious?
Are children being educated on this subject sufficiently in school/at
home?
Quiz
True or false?
How much do you know about school dinners?
1. A school dinner costs £1.15p to buy in a Bradford primary school
2. Dinner in a Bradford primary school costs 30p per head of ingredients
3. Less than 50% of children in Bradford primary schools choose to have a
school dinner
4. Compared to Rotherham primary schools, Bradford is higher in the primary
school meal league table (i.e. more money spent per head of ingredients
compared to price charged)
5. The first ever school dinner in Britain was introduced in Bradford in 1936
Quiz
True or False?
6.
The average school cook earns £5.35p per hour
7.
All school cooks must have a basic food hygiene certificate and
HACCP – hazard analysis and critical control point training
8.
All school cooks must have a level 1 qualification in ‘Providing a
Healthier School Meals Service’
9.
School cooks are encouraged to obtain level 2 and 3 qualification
in food safety, preparing and cooking healthier meals, and the
development and introduction of recipes – City and Guilds
accredited
Quiz
True or False?
10
The largest food supplier to schools across the country is called
‘Rentokill’
11
Since August 2006, schools have not been allowed to sell confectionary,
savoury snacks and sweetened drinks from tuck shops and vending
machines
12
The potato is classed as one of the five a day recommended fruit and veg
13
One McDonalds quarter pounder with cheese and medium fries equates
to 54g of total fat
14
According to the 2002 Wanless report into NHS requirements, treating
diet-related diseases already costs the NHS £6.2m a year
Quiz
Answers
Answers to be discussed in talk
Taz this slide is for you -you don’t need to show it to the audience
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True
False
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True
Lowest in the country in primary school league table
30p until Jan 2005, then increased by 16p per head to 46p
56%
See league table which compares other Yorkshire towns
In 1906 by Labour MP Fred Jowett, member of school board
This is minimum wage. Average cook earns between £6.50p and £7.50p
This is all that is required
Optional
Optional
How Scary!
This rule comes into play in September 2007
Potato is not classed as one of five fruit and veg
Remember the adult daily allowance id only 70g!
And the obesity crisis will make this figure much worse
Government Pledge
• School dinners – progressed from national joke to top of political
agenda
• Battle for better meals in schools brought to public eye by Jamie
Oliver revealing shocking state of children’s diets in 2005 TV series,
Jamie’s School Dinners (as seen in video clip)
• Jamie’s campaign + pressure from parents + other pressure groups,
led to former Education Secretary Ruth Kelly’s pledge to put £280
million toward school dinners in April 2005
The New Rules
From August 2006
•
•
•
School dinners now exclude crisps, chocolates, fizzy drinks and low quality’ meat
School children will be served at least two portions of fruit and veg with every meal
Deep fried food will be restricted to two portions per week
From September 2007
•
•
•
•
Additional rules in place about what can be sold from school tuck shops and school
vending machines
Schools will not be allowed to sell confectionery, savoury snacks (unless they’re free
from added salt, sugar or fat) or sweetened drinks
Must also sell variety of fruit and veg products
Must provide access to free, fresh water
From 2008
•
Primary schools will need to stipulate vitamin content of school meals
From 2009
•
Secondary schools will need to stipulate vitamin content
School Cook Training
•
School catering staff need to be valued as part of their school communities
•
Vital link in helping children change attitudes towards healthy eating
•
Training aimed at providing skills needed to prepare healthy meals which
not only meet new nutritional standards, but are also popular with children
they provide for
•
Must have basic food hygiene and certificate HACCP
•
Since Sept 2005 encouraged to obtain level 1, 2 and 3 qualifications which
will enable school caterers to:
– Understand how to provide range of healthier meals
– Understand why it is important
– Develop marketing ideas and material to promote healthy food choices to kids
Bradford Policy
• Bradford primary schools spend 46 pence per head of ingredients
• This has increased by 16 pence per child since January 2006
• According to the primary school meal league table, in which the cost
per head of school meals per local education authority is recorded,
Bradford charges the lowest in the country for a school meal
• More than 50% of children choose to have a school meal in Bradford
Primary Schools, which compares well to other LEAs (Local
Education Authorities)
Primary School Meal League Table
2006, Yorkshire
Cost per head
(p)
Price charged
(£)
Average %
eating
Bradford
46
1.15
56
East Riding of
Yorkshire
44
1.42
43
Leeds
59
1.45
42
Rotherham
37
1.50
43
Sheffield
45
1.45
41
Wakefield
40
1.20
33
York
44
1.52
35
Bradford Success Stories
August 2006
• Introduction of ‘classic’ English dishes reinvented to include halal meat for
Muslim school children
– Two month trial across 6 primary schools in the area proved to be hugely
successful
November 2006
• Bradford gardener wins Soil Association School Food Award for services to
Haworth primary School – running after school gardening club, which
involves the children growing vegetables for their school meals
–
Soil Association School Food Awards celebrate the importance of providing healthy and
sustainable school meals and better classroom education on food and where it comes from.
The Awards aim to recognize and champion caterers and primary schools that provide
healthy, freshly prepared school meals and are working toward sourcing local and organic
ingredients
Summary
What else is being done?
• School Food Trust (funded by Department for education and skills
and Lottery Fund) set up to work with schools and parents to
improve meals
• School food has become part of OFSTED inspections
• Campaigners calling for cooking lessons to be brought back to
school
– Currently food education is scattered around curriculum, but pupils are
more likely to learn how to design packaging than learn how to make
fresh, wholesome food
• New tuck shop/ vending machine rules from 2007
Summary
What else is being done?
• Increased funding for school dinners may make positive
impact - but no one knows whether the increased
funding in England will be maintained in future budgets
• One thing is for certain, parents matter enormously in
this debate, whether they’re encouraging healthy eating
at home or taking an interest in what’s dished up at
school
References
•
•
•
www.education.guardian.co.uk/schoolmeals
www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/schoolmeals