Political

Labour u-turns on the quiet on healthy meals at schools

As David Laws and his team have spotted, in 2005, Ruth Kelly promised to ensure that at least 50p would be spent on healthy ingredients in primary schools, and 60p in secondary schools, but current Schools Minister, Kevin Brennan has since denied that such a minimum spend exists.

David Laws commented:

Ministers seem to have quietly dropped their commitment to a minimum basic level of funding for school meals. With food prices surging, this is going to mean a massive squeeze on the quality of meal which schools can afford.

The Government made that promise in 2005, before the huge increases we have seen recently in food prices. Those rises make it even more important that at the very least, those minimum amounts are being spent on ingredients.

Without more money being allocated for school food, it is now likely that quality will also suffer.