Hungry for Success
The Scottish Executive has invested £63.5m over 3 years in a revitalised school meals service in
Crucially, this initiative will be integrated into a health promoting school approach and will create a supportive environment for healthier living (of which healthy eating is a part) in schools. Children will be provided with healthier food choices, supportive environments and information and support for healthy food choices.
Measures include:
· Free fruit for all pupils in primary one and two
· Standard portion sizes and product specifications
· Actions to incentivise uptake of free school meal entitlement
· New nutrient standards for school meals
· Provision of drinking water
· Improved facilities in dining rooms
The recommendations are based upon 7 underlying principles:
- Creating a Positive whole school / whole child ethos
- Pupil consultation
- Managing the process
- Incentives to improve general uptake
- Partnership working
- Eliminating stigma
- Influencing choice
The approach includes a detailed strategy for monitoring progress and performance and support for schools and education authorities to achieve the standards.
As part of this strategy, monitoring is being built into Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) school inspections from August 2004, target nutrient specifications for manufactured products have been set by the Food Standards Agency Scotland to assist caterers achieve the nutrient standards and to drive up food quality within this sector, and menu planning and analysis software (H4S) has also been developed. The full report can be found at www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/hfs-00.asp