Protect free school meals, say doctors

 

Free school meals for infant pupils must be protected and not sacrificed in any budget cuts, say top doctors and nutritionists in a letter to a paper. 

Writing to the Sunday Times, the group say that if the meals were scrapped, the move could harm children's health.
The coalition government introduced the meals a year ago for all pupils in the first three years of school in England.
But there has been speculation the policy could face cuts under the Conservative administration.
Such a move would be "short-term thinking indeed", argues the letter, although there has been no word that the meals are under threat in the cuts of between 25% and 40% demanded by Chancellor George Osborne from every government department from unprotected budgets for his spending review.
The free school meals budget has cost around £600m each year - but the meals could be vulnerable as they are not part of the per-pupil schools budget, which is protected.

Childhood obesity

The letter, signed by 40 leading health professionals, applauds the government for its "continued support" of universal infant free school meals and the School Food Plan which stipulates nutritional standards for meals served in local authority-run schools.
"With one in three children currently leaving primary school overweight or obese, ensuring a healthy, nutritionally balanced school lunch has never been so important," it says.
The signatories, who include Prof Lord Darzi of Denham, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation, and Prof Sheila the Baroness Hollins, who chairs the British Medical Association's science board, describe childhood obesity as "one of our greatest public health challenges".
They list health risks faced by overweight and obese children, including insulin resistance, hypertension, early signs of heart disease, asthma and poor mental health.