Up to 1.8 million children in the UK face lower quality school meals

According to LACA, the school caterers’ trade body, food prices have risen by 30% since May 2022. In some cases, items have increased in cost by up to 50%. Due to these increasing prices, school caterers are having to consider ways to manage these costs, and as a result, caterers are having to use more processed foods. Other potential changes include switching from British to imported meat, as well as reducing how much of the food is cooked from scratch. Schools are concerned that such changes to school meals are likely to have an impact on the quality of learning in lessons, as well as raising challenges around teaching their students healthy eating habits for their adult lives. The LACA’s chairman, Brad Pearce, has called on the government for help to make more school meal funding available to ensure that children are receiving ‘hot, healthy and nutritious’ meals. Read more here.