Dame Prue Leith has hailed a forthcoming “revolution” in school food, as she suggested taking reforms one step further and banning lunchboxes.
The former Great British Bake Off judge, 86, said she would like to see free school meals for every child, and for the meals to be compulsory.
It comes as all pupils in England from families on universal credit will be eligible for free school meals from September, and amid an overhaul of school food standards aimed at tackling childhood obesity and tooth decay.
Government interest welcomed
Dame Prue told the Press Association: “It’s the first time in my long life of campaigning for better school food that I’ve actually felt there’s a Government that is at least a little bit interested in getting food right in schools.”
She said feeding children tasty, nutritious food will not only help them be healthy but will also be an “opportunity for pleasure”.
“If children eat junk and they don’t like healthy food and they’re not given healthy food they will not be healthy,” she told PA.
“But I’m not only keen on learning to like good food for health.
“I think it’s such a joy and such an interest. I think it’s a lost opportunity for pleasure.”
Lunchbox ban suggestion
She also said school kitchen staff are undervalued, adding that they can educate children about what they are eating and build their confidence around trying new foods.
Dame Prue suggested that lunchboxes should be banned because their contents cannot be policed.
“I’m being much more draconian… I think we should ban lunchboxes because you can’t police what parents put in,” she told PA.
“It’s very hard if you’re a mum walking around a supermarket with your child, and a child wants to have that chocolate bar and whatever in their lunchbox, it’s really hard because it’s an easy way of sort of pleasing a child, and it’s an easy way of almost buying love.”
School food standards overhaul
But she praised the ongoing efforts to improve school food, referencing the work by the Chefs in Schools charity – co-founders of the School Food Project initiative which offers support to all schools in England, including training catering teams.
“At last the Government is doing something about it, and Chefs in Schools and their partners in the School Food Project are showing that there is a route to getting it right,” Dame Prue said.
“It’s no good just making those rules if you don’t give the schools help to get there, and so the combination of the Government saying we should do this and the School Food Project saying this is how you do it, we should really see a revolution in school dinners.”
Bite Back – a food charity set up by Jamie Oliver and one of the organisations involved in the School Food Project – analysed menus from almost 400 state secondary schools in England and found more than three-quarters contained at least one breach of the current standards.
In many schools breaches involved providing burgers, nuggets and hash browns more often than allowed, according to a report published on Monday.
In a sweeping overhaul, the first new school food standards since 2014 aim to increase fibre intake by ensuring more fruit, vegetables and wholegrains are on offer.
Around one in three children are leaving primary school overweight or obese, while tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for youngsters aged five to nine.
Dame Prue became a judge on The Great British Bake Off in 2017, replacing original judge Mary Berry.
She announced in January that she had left the programme and, a few days later, Nigella Lawson was confirmed as her replacement.
She was made a dame in 2021 for her services to food, broadcasting and charity.
