Campaigners boost efforts to protect healthy school meals

"We are trying to form a new All-Party Group in Parliament that will focus specifically on school food and the quality of school food and access to it," said Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods, shadow minister for Business, Innovation and Skills. She was speaking as the opening chair of the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum and Westminster Education Forum seminar The future of school food finance, fairness and procurement.

Key players involved in the new group's creation include Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, and Diana Johnson, shadow minister for Health.

Dr Michèle Belot, research fellow at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, revealed it was experimenting with ways to encourage healthier choices among children from poorer households. "We are currently working in collaboration with a number of local authorities across the country to conduct such experiments and we are welcoming any sort of collaboration in this project."

Roy Ballam, education programme manager at the British Nutrition Foundation, told delegates he expected the government to put more emphasis on food education in England's updated school curriculum, due out later this year. "I think there is going to be lots more support with this new coalition government." Ballam said the Teacher Development Agency was also reporting a year on year rise in food teachers.

Judy Hargadon, chief executive of the School Food Trust, another speaker at the event, said buying cheaper food would not improve the efficient delivery and quality of school meals. "Improving procurement, there's much more scope there, improving the way in which equipment is used to facilitate staff efficiency."

Multi-pronged initiatives could help tackle what Kevin Morgan, professor of governance and development at the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, called "the impending crisis of the school food service".

School food caterers in England and Wales were "fighting for their lives" against budget cuts, rising costs and falling demand in some areas, he said.