East Sussex schools get free lunches during National School Meals Week

20th October 2009, 11:56am

As part of National Schools Meals Week, primary and special schools in East Sussex will be offering a free lunch to all pupils, so they can “see for themselves how good they have become”.

The offer is being run through the county council's meals contractor, Chartwells and is being funded with a School Food Trust grant.

Cllr David Elkin, the County Council's Lead Member for Learning and School Effectiveness said: "We want to use this opportunity to tempt more children in our schools to eat a school lunch. They are affordable, healthy and are a far cry from the school meals I grew up with."

Currently about 11,000 meals are served to pupils in 160 primary schools in East Sussex each day.

This means about 31% of primary pupils in the county enjoy school lunch but the council is hoping the complimentary taster will see that figure rise.

Cllr Elkin added: "There are a lot of myths about school dinners and they've always got bad press. But the reality is far from that. We hope that if we can encourage more children to try a meal they'll realise what they are missing."

The school meals contract is delivered in East Sussex by Chartwells and meet stringent nutritional guidelines issued by Government.

At a cost of £1.87 a child can receive a lunch that guarantees they will get half of their five recommended portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

The complimentary school meals will be phased in the week starting Monday 9th November and a leaflet will be sent to parents to let them know of the offer. With the leaflet will be a short survey to ask parents their views on school meals and the service schools offer.

Cllr Elkin said: "If we can get more young people eating and enjoying a hot dinner it will be money well spent. They say there's no such thing as a free lunch but in this particular case, there definitely is!"

Related Articles:

• 09 Nov 2009 - Colin Jackson reveals Britain's favourite school meal

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