21st Jan 2009 - 00:00
Abstract
They say there's no such thing as a free lunch but for thousands of children across Leeds there is – and many are not taking advantage of it.
Young people from lower income families are often entitled to a free, healthy school meal everyday but the 2008 school census showed that of the 18,000 who are known to be eligible, as many as 6,000 are not taking up the offer. To help reduce the figure Education Leeds commissioned a two year study - which included 10 pilot studies in primary and secondary schools - to be carried out by Leeds Metropolitan University to investigate why families are not taking up their entitlement. The research highlighted several reasons including schools often being unaware of the stigma among students attached to free school meals. To combat this and to raise awareness with pupils and parents of their entitlement, Education Leeds has developed a toolkit for schools to help minimise discrimination, maximise awareness and make it easier to claim a free lunch. Councillor Richard Harker, executive board member for learning at Leeds City Council, said: "For children and young people from lower income families, the free school meal can make a significant contribution to their overall health. It is important that children and young people who are eligible for free school meals are taking up the offer - which is why this information pack has been put together for our schools. I would urge families who think they may be eligible to check with their school or Leeds Benefit Services as soon as possible." Chris Edwards chief executive of Education Leeds, said: "The Leeds School Meals Strategy aims to make sure every young person in the city has access to healthy and tasty food which they can eat in a happy and safe environment. Nutritious school meals are an important part of the school day so it is vital that every child has access to them, which is why we have developed this information pack. The result should be more of our disadvantaged children eating a nutritious and tasty meal every day which will help with their learning, concentration levels and overall health." Two schools which took part in the pilot studies were Greenhill Primary School in Bramley and Beechwood Primary School in Seacroft. After assessing their individual situations, both have made changes to help increase free school meal uptake. At Greenhill primary, dinner money was traditionally collected in the classroom in front of pupils, meaning that classmates could easily notice who did and did not pay for their school meal. The school has now altered their system and dinner money is now paid directly to the school by the parents so children do not know who pays for meals and who doesn't. At Beechwood primary, teachers noticed that children who received a free meal on school trips were given a packed lunch in a brown paper bag. To make it less obvious who received a free packed lunch, the school purchased lunch boxes so there was no difference to those who brought lunch in from home.