Mashed potato, gravy, custard. When British people hear the words “school dinners”, it’s not always great memories that come to mind.
That’s not the case for everyone. Indeed France is known for its gourmet school lunches cooked by onsite chefs – bon appétit!
But in the UK people have been complaining about school meals for a long time. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver campaigned against cheap processed foods like “turkey twizzlers” in the early 2000s. And Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s prime minister in the 1970s, was nicknamed the “milk snatcher” when she was education secretary because she stopped free milk for children in schools.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more children than ever before have become eligible for free school meals. In fact, 1.9 million children (22.5% of all school-age children in England) were eligible for free school lunches in 2022 – up from 17.3% in 2020.
