Packed Lunches vs School Lunches

Tuesday 12 January 2010

A recent study by Leeds University has shown that from a sample of 1,300 English schoolchildren, just 1.1% of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards set by the Government.

This reignites the recent and constant debate surrounding school lunches, which was controversially kick-started by the Jamie Oliver campaign for removing junk food from school menus. The high-profile TV program and surrounding campaigns were admirable in their intentions, but in some cases caused parents to withdraw their children from school meals automatically - replacing them with packed lunches. This way they could feel that they were still in control of what their children would and could eat when they weren't at home.

In September 2005 the Government established the School Food Trust, whose remit was to transform school food and food skills, promote the education and health of children and young people and improve the quality of food in schools. The most significant development created by the SFT was the introduction of Nutrient-Based Standards for school menus, which took a range of 14 factors into account with minimum requirements for substances such as iron and zinc, and maximum levels for substances such as carbohydrate and saturated fats. These standards vary depending on whether the school is single-sex boys or girls (as the genders have different nutritional requirements) or indeed whether the school is mixed-sex. The standards were first introduced for Primary schools in September 2008, then rolled out into Maintained Secondary schools from September 2009.

Harrison Catering Services' Company Nutritionist Dr. Juliet Gray certainly feels that schools need to have more involvement with what children eat in school, but is convinced that the best way to do this is to encourage them to eat a quality school meal rather than policing lunchboxes.

"We certainly work best with schools and Local Authorities who share our view of the importance of school meals - not just in terms of the consumption of quality food for its inherent nutritional value, but because of the overall health and social benefits of shared mealtimes which feature freshly-made, nutritionally balanced dishes."

Harrison Catering Services have spent a great deal of time and money making sure that their menus comply with the Standards but most importantly, making sure that the meals on offer to children taste great and represent real choice and interest.

Dr. Gray believes that "Whilst there is no doubt that creating menus that meet the nutrient standards is challenging, we have demonstrated that it can be done in a way which doesn't compromise on flavour and choice. As a company that was founded on the principle that meals are made on-site every day from fresh ingredients, we are at a natural advantage, as we are able to flex our existing menus to meet the standards rather than creating new ones from scratch."

Harrison's founder and MD Geoffrey Harrison is in complete agreement, and has always maintained the same approach to the science of nutrition: "Nutritional value is only there if the food is actually eaten, so it has to be a principal intention to make the food look and taste as good as possible, but without compromising the inherent nutritional content."

Harrison's school meal uptake certainly bears this out, with uptake across their Local Authority contract for Primary and Special Schools in Lambeth reaching 68% versus the nationwide average of under 40%.

Posted by Giles Cooper 

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