Tiny school dinners ‘are leaving pupils hungry’

CHILDREN are going hungry at school as cost-cutting canteens serve up tiny portions despite the price of meals rising, teachers warned yesterday.

Portions in some schools are ‘very small’ and some meal choices run out quickly, a survey of staff revealed.

Teachers questioned by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said youngsters are too often given unhealthy, carbohydrate-heavy meals of chips, pasta or rice.

The survey, covering 500 teachers and classroom assistants in primaries and secondaries, found that 62 per cent of respondents said the price of meals had gone up in their school this year.

Most said it had risen by up to 50p per day, leading to an additional cost to parents of £95 this year compared with 2010/11.

But 34 per cent said meals failed to represent good value for money and 19 per cent said meals were not healthy.

Teachers said some canteens are skimping on portion sizes, prompting suspicions that firms providing school meals are putting profits before children’s nutritional needs. There has been a surge in the number of obese and overweight children in recent years, but teachers are concerned that children on free school meals are being deprived of vital nutrition.

The number of children who qualify for free meals is edging up from 1,055,000 last year as more parents are made redundant.

Dr Mary Bousted, ATL’S general secretary, said: ‘It’s absolutely the case that children are going hungry in school and we all know what hunger does to your ability to learn.

‘Some teachers are saying that children don’t get enough food. Some parents say their children may be eating food that is against their religion because the choice has gone, the other option has run out.

‘In an age of austerity, in rising child poverty... free school meals become increasingly important as a major source of nutrition.’

Clare Kellett, a teacher at West Somerset Community College, told the ATL’S annual conference in Manchester: ‘[Some pupils] don’t really need to read Dickens and write essays about it to find out about child poverty, neglect, hunger. They don’t need to read it because they live it, in 2012.’