Dame Prue Leith suggests banning lunchboxes after government make school meal 'revolution'
The former Great British Bake Off star said she would like to see free and compulsory meals available for every child at school
Dame Prue Leith has praised a “revolution” in school food, as she suggested taking new reforms a step further and banning lunchboxes.
The TV star has said she wants to see free school meals made available for every child, and for the meals to be compulsory, doing away with lunch boxes packed at home.
This comes as all pupils in England from families on universal credit now become eligible for free school meals starting in September.
It's part of an overhaul of school food standards that aim to tackle health problems linked to food, such as childhood obesity and tooth decay.
Around one in three children leave primary school overweight or obese, while tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for youngsters aged five to nine.
Dame Prue pointed out that it was “the first time in my long life of campaigning for better school food that I’ve actually felt there’s a Government that is at least a little bit interested in getting food right in schools."
She said it was important to feed children both delicious and nutritious food to help them be healthier and also offer an “opportunity for pleasure”.
“If children eat junk and they don’t like healthy food and they’re not given healthy food they will not be healthy.
"But I’m not only keen on learning to like good food for health."
“I think it’s such a joy and such an interest. I think it’s a lost opportunity for pleasure.”
The former Bake Off star went a step further in suggesting that lunchboxes should be banned because their contents cannot be controlled, with parents adding whatever they choose.
“I’m being much more draconian… I think we should ban lunchboxes because you can’t police what parents put in." said Dame Prue.
“It’s very hard if you’re a mum walking around a supermarket with your child, and a child wants to have that chocolate bar and whatever in their lunchbox, it’s really hard because it’s an easy way of sort of pleasing a child, and it’s an easy way of almost buying love.”
Dame Prue also highlighted ongoing efforts to improve school dinners, mentioning the work done by Chefs in Schools, co-founders of the School Food Project initiative offering support across England to all schools.
“At last the Government is doing something about it, and Chefs in Schools and their partners in the School Food Project are showing that there is a route to getting it right,” Dame Prue said.
“It’s no good just making those rules if you don’t give the schools help to get there, and so the combination of the Government saying we should do this and the School Food Project saying this is how you do it, we should really see a revolution in school dinners.”