Swinging our way towards school food success!

Hiya! I'm Zara, and I'm letting you in on our school food campaign — particularly an exciting meeting I was at earlier this month with Minister Olivia Bailey.

Where did it all start?

A few years ago, Bite Back successfully campaigned to extend free school meals in England, but that was just the beginning of the journey. School food prices have skyrocketed, and let’s be honest… sometimes what we are served can feel like an acquired taste! We're working hard to make sure poor quality school food doesn't diminish the value of free school meals being extended, and we're taking you on the journey!

The reality of School Food in England

Let me set the scene: you’re in class, everyone’s doing silent exam practice; your stomach just keeps rumbling… and rumbling… and rumbling again. You look around awkwardly while wanting the ground to swallow you whole because you know people do NOT want to hear your stomach. A steaming hot plate of fresh vegetable lasagne, with a potato salad and golden garlic bread, is all that’s running through your mind while trying to ‘find the value of angle P’, but at lunchtime all you get served is reality. The reality of the school canteen. Year 7s screaming, a 5 second window before someone pushes past to grab that last slice of pizza, that feeling of shame when you don’t have enough money in your account and everyone’s waiting behind you in line. And there’s no cherry on top, because the fruit pots cost an arm and a leg.

That’s why we met with Minister Olivia Bailey — to share what our school food experience is really like, and to make sure it’s taken into consideration for the Government’s review of the English School Food Standards. Food has always felt important to me, and it seems dystopian that economic status dictates the basic human right of food, and its quality. Since joining Bite Back, I’ve always been particularly interested in school food’s nutrition and quality, so when we were going to meet the Minister, I knew exactly what I planned to mention.

Meeting Olivia Bailey

The day of the meeting started off with me and my fellow activists all having a chat in the Bite Back offices, highlighting what we thought was important to let the Minister know. I was slightly nervous, not exactly sure how the meeting would go or to what extent I’d be able to discuss what I found important. But coming out of the meeting, we all felt heard and were able to share varying stories: discussing food waste, free school meals, the execution of cultural meals and more.

What I found particularly interesting was how we all never really paid much attention to what we were eating in the school canteen. I know that I naturally presumed school — the place they teach you that ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’— would just serve healthy foods. But that’s not always the case. Students across the country will be familiar with Radnor Fizz, a ‘healthy’ alternative to sugary drinks. Well they actually contain more than half the daily recommended sugar intake for an ADULT!

So what happens next?

In all fairness, if someone asked me if I wanted to eat healthy food in the school canteen… I’d look at them as if they asked me whether the Earth was flat. Why? Well when I think of healthy school food, the only image that comes to mind is the sad salads in canteens. Junk food brands have taken over our canteens and our lives to the extent that we don’t even know what an appealing healthy option could look like. But through Bite Back, we’ve seen it’s possible to have healthy school food that looks and tastes absolutely amazing, and will keep you fuelled for longer!

And if you resonate with anything in this blog, then stay tuned for the rest of our journey as we take on school food.

Without your support, none of this would be possible. When your voices back ours, we’re able to share the real repercussions of a food system setting us up for failure. Each and every single one of you has the power to partake in the change of the food system for the better… So why not?

Join me on a journey to improve school food in England, for our friends, siblings, and most importantly, our future.