Eating Better Together
The purpose of National School Meals Week (NSMW) is run by the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) to promote awareness of healthy eating in Britain’s Primary and Secondary schools, and we’re encouraging everyone to get involved!
This year National School Meals Week will run from 31st October – 4th November 2016 and it’s all about recognising what is great about school meals. There have been fantastic improvements over recent years, but there are still some misconceptions made by parents based on their own experience of school meals. This may be preventing parents from taking full advantage of school dinners and sending their children with packed lunches instead. However, recent research shows that packed lunches still contain far too much junk food and fail to meet the government standards. Cooked school meals, meanwhile, have come a long way since today’s parents were eating them.
The week will be filled with fun theme days, such as Bangers and Mash for Bonfire Night. There’s even a chance to break a world record! And school meals will be even served to the country’s leaders, with a special meal for MPs at the House of Commons on the 2nd .
NSMW, despite its name, is actually a year-round initiative to get as many pupils in English and Welsh schools to have regular school meals. This isn’t just about advertising school meals. The message with NSMW is that children across the country should have access to at least one healthy, well-rounded meal a day containing:
- Plenty of fruit and vegetables
- Some milk and dairy food
- Plenty of unrefined starchy foods
- Some meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein
Are you a parent, member of a school governing body or staff member who’d like to get involved? Go to the NSMW website for loads of ideas and resources to help you get started!
