Head teachers urged to ban packed lunches

Head teachers in England are being urged to ban packed lunches to increase the take-up of school dinners and promote healthy eating.

A government-commissioned school food review by two founders of the Leon restaurant chain says take-up is low at 43% despite huge quality improvements.

The authors of the School Food Plan say packed lunches are nearly always less nutritious than a cooked meal.

This is a stupid, stupid, stupid proposal, its great school meals have improved but I don’t see why that should lead to a ban on packed lunches.

Packed lunches are cheaper for a start, and this point that they’re less nutritious than a cooked meal is also misguided because the kids will be getting a cooked meal at home in the evening, so why would they need two per day.

As I said it’s great that the quality of school meals has improved, but you don’t need to go any further and say all kids must eat them and ban packed lunches, that’s a step too far.