The Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) has today sent 649 new Members of Parliament a letter calling on them to get behind the school meals service to safeguard the future health of the next generation and help stem a spiralling NHS bill.

LACA has asked MPs that they give their support to the school meals service when schools start back in September.  LACA's National School Meals Week (November 8 – 12)  which focuses on the theme 'Get Involved', is also urging MPs to pay a visit to one of their local schools and witness at first hand the improvements that have taken place in school food over the last five years.

The School Lunch Grant is scheduled to end in March 2011. As public sector spending cuts begin to bite and with the new Government having already cancelled  the extension of the free school meals eligibility pilots, there is concern over the potential impact on Local Authorities and their ability to sustain a quality school meals service should funding be severed in 2011. 

LACA has stressed to MPs that the loss of funding will force many Local Authorities to reconsider the level of service they can provide.  The outcome could be that parents would have to pay more, schools would have to subsidise more or Local Authorities would have to contribute more. 

Beverley Baker, Chairman, Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) said: "Although the latest figures show that more children are having a school meal every day than last year, this is still less than half of the school population,  There is still much work to be done to encourage children and young people to have a school meal and  it is imperative that the Government continues to invest in the service so that caterers can sustain quality and ensure that prices remain affordable for parents.

"At a time when discretionary spending for parents is under pressure, school meals represent better value for money than a packed lunch or the other less favourable snacking options outside of the school gates, when you consider the higher nutritional content and greater contribution they make to children's diets and lifestyles as well as academic and physical achievement.  

"With emerging evidence that healthier school meals are contributing to improved learning and behaviour, it would be very short-sighted for any government to pull the plug on funding now.

"What children eat at school represents one small step on the road to improving their health, reducing the bigger obesity problem and in the longer term by decreasing NHS costs, this country's national debt.  Surely cutting any funding to the school meals service would be  one cut too many and too big a price to pay in terms of the future health and  prosperity of this nation."

Related PDFs:

LACA Chair's letter to MPs

Words: Maria Bracken

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