The campaign encourages schools to sign up to a School Food Charter, which is a commitment to serving freshly made and high-quality school meals. Chefs and people with a passion for food are also being urged to consider a career in school food.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of Chefs in Schools and author of the National Food Strategy, said: “We have an obesity crisis in this country, although you cant fix everything with school food, you have such a vital time to intervene in how children interact with food so if you can teach them through the food they eat in the dining hall, you have an opportunity to shape their eating habits for life.”
Chefs in Schools are calling on the Government to implement recommendations made in the National Food Strategy, including:
- Put quality first: Set minimum quality standards for health and sustainability in school food, and ensure compliance with the school food standards through a mandatory certification scheme.
- Invest in the workforce: Invest in training the school kitchen workforce in child nutrition and the school food standards, making this a mandatory requirement.
- Make sure no child misses out: Extend eligibility for free school meals to every child who needs them. As a starting point, increasing the earnings threshold for free school meal entitlement to £20,000 up from £7,400.
Tom Kerridge, who co-founded Full Time Meals with child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford, is backing the campaign to raise awareness of the role school food can play in tackling child food poverty.
According to research one in three children leave school either overweight or obese and there are around 1.5 million hungry children living in food insecure households who miss out on free school meals.
Restauranteur, chef and writer Prue Leith added: “I support this campaign with all my heart. Schools can offer a fantastic opportunity to teach children to cook and eat good food that will set them up for life.”