Pru Leith is a seasoned media performer and her speech to the Local Authority Caterers Association conference reflected on the significant change facing those providing school meals.
The school meals market may be huge in aggregate but at an individual school level it’s a tough business where commercial companies struggle to make a profit.
Therefore, it was interesting to hear Leith advocate free school meals for all, as in Finland and Sweden (where 90% and 85% of students receive free lunches) because, ‘you could argue that lunchtime
www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
sustenance is a basic need, like air, water, warmth, and safety, and should be provided free. For the period between 1947 and 1950 school food was indeed free’. True, but this three-year window followed the Second World War, and coincided with food rationing. As for food being a basic need, it has always been thus, the difference is that air has always been free, whereas food has not.
