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Tucking into school meals
24/06/2008
Increasing numbers of young people are choosing to tuck in to a nutritious, hot meal during their lunchtime at school.
Statistics released by the Scottish Government today show that of those pupils present on the survey day, 47.1 per cent sat down to a meal supplied by the school, compared to 46.1 per cent in 2007.
The appetite for school dinners has seen the rise in primary school uptake, partly driven by the popularity of the free school meals pilot for all pupils in Primaries One to Three in five local authorities.
However, the number of secondary school pupils choosing to eat school meals has fallen from 44.9 per cent in 2007 to 42.9 per cent in 2008.
Adam Ingram, Minister for Children and Young People, said:
"Some older children have already got into bad habits and it will take time to get the message over. However, under the new regulations being introduced in schools, we aim to educate young palates and help young people to make good food choices."
The new food regulations mean that from next term primary schools will remove sweets and fizzy drinks from sale and chips will only be served as part of an overall balanced and nutritional meal.
Secondary schools are not expected to move on to the healthier menus until August 3, 2009 to allow them more time to prepare but Fife Council has already taken the decision to introduce the regulations in its secondary schools from the beginning of next year.
Mr Ingram said:
"It's encouraging to see local authorities embracing this opportunity to make a real difference and demonstrate that it is possible to lead the way in influencing young tastes.
"Some local authorities are showing encouraging increases in uptake of school meals which indicates that there are lessons to be learned from their success."
Cllr Alex Waddell, convener of Falkirk District Council's Education and Leisure Committee, said:
"Within Falkirk Council we have welcomed the opportunity that Hungry for Success and the new act have given us to improve and develop our school meals' service.
"Key to the success of this initiative has been the involvement of pupils and parents working with staff from Education Services, NHS Forth Valley and our caterers. We recognise that by providing our pupils with healthy choices which appeal to them, we are helping to ensure that our children are healthy and able to make positive decisions about their lifestyle.
"This approach, combined with a competitive pricing, has ensured that we have increased access to and maintained uptake of school lunches which are attractive to both pupils and parents."
A separate report on the Government's free school meals trial involving P1-P3 pupils in five local authorities will be published later this year.
The report also includes information about total local authority expenditure on meals during 2006-07, the year prior to the survey.
The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Act places a duty on local authorities to promote the uptake of school meals and free school meals