Parents told to pack it in
Expert believes that children eating school dinners would slash the obesity epidemic
PARENTS have been warned they could be shortening the life of their children by sending them to school with packed lunches.
An expert has claimed the child obesity epidemic is being worsened by parents ignoring advice on the benefits of pupils eating school meals rather than lunches prepared at home.
Paul Evans of School Health UK and the British Obesity Society, has experience of working with 200 educational establishments and has met with more than 100 headteachers to discuss nutrition and health.
He has campaigned for a decade on the benefits of school meals, free to pupils under seven then about £2.20 for two courses.
Research shows around 98 per cent of packed lunches are poor in quality, containing too much sugar and saturated fats as well as being too large.
In 2018 School Health UK discovered it would cost £6,000 a year to re-create one pupil’s school meals using ingredients from supermarkets.
In an open letter to parents, Mr Evans said: “Parents are shortening their children’s lives and wasting hundreds of pounds a year by choosing packed lunches.
“I honestly cannot get my head around why, despite school meals being healthy and good value, 50 per cent of primary school pupils across the country are not eating them. “Parents are wasting both time and money trying to replace school meals with healthier packed lunches. It cannot be done. If all a child is given to eat is cakes or crisps and Fruit Shoots to drink that is what their body will use to grow.”
He urged parents to accept that stereotypes of poor quality school meals were a thing of the past.
“We all want to give our children the best possible start to life – and a school meal is the ideal place.
“Gone are the days of turkey dinosaurs and potato smilies (covered in salt), a frosted cake with pink custard, and half a pint of extra-sugar squash.”
The call was backed by Stephanie Wood, CEO of School Food Matters, who said: “We believe the very best lunch available at school is a hot, nutritionally balanced school meal.
“Research from the University of Leeds confirms that packed lunches are no match for a school meal.
“The findings, published in the journal BMJ Open, showed that just 1.6 per cent of primary school packed lunches met the nutritional standards set for school meals.
“Only 17 per cent contained vegetables or salad, while 52 per cent contained too many sweet snacks.”