The statistics surrounding childhood obesity make for uncomfortable reading. More than one in five children are overweight or obese when starting primary school, rising to one in three by the time they leave. Obesity prevalence among children in the most deprived areas of the country is twice that of children in the least deprived areas – a gap which appears to be widening.
This is bad news for Britain’s health, but there are solutions. The Soil Association’s Food for Life Programme supports schools in providing healthy school meals, great lunchtimes and food education that has a positive impact on both pupils and the wider community.
The programme is based on a whole school framework that guides the development of a healthy food culture in schools, in a way that permeates the whole school experience. What’s taught about food and healthy eating in lessons is reflected and reinforced in the broader daily life of the school.
Pupils are further empowered to help guide the process along beyond the school gates and into the wider community. Recent independent research has found that pupils who have taken part in the Food for Life programme are twice as likely to eat their five fruit and veg a day, and are a third less likely to eat no fruit and veg at all than pupils in comparable schools. They also eat significantly more fruit and vegetables at home.
Why? Because they’re served higher-quality meals at school, but also because they’re inspired to do so. The cooking, growing and farm visit activities that form part of the programme help to give children a tangible understanding of where food comes from and how it’s prepared. Food is made an integral and central part of the school day.
Lunches that regularly include food grown by pupils help to reinforce core messages and understanding about healthy eating. The consensus in many schools is that since growing their own produce as part of the Food for Life School Award framework, menus and school meals have improved, with pupils eating better at lunchtime and being more willing to try new foods. The number of those buying school lunches tends to increase, and even where pupils bring their own packed lunches, those lunches tend to become healthier.
Changing dietary behaviours is difficult. You can’t simply tell children to eat more veg, or dish it up and hope for the best. The whole school approach embedded within the Food for Life framework drives real change by engaging and inspiring children to eat well. If all primary schools were to adopt the Food for Life School Awards framework, a million more children would be eating their five a day, and some 100,000 more children would be eating at least some veg at school.
Lorna Picton is communications and marketing manager at Soil Association Food for Life
