Parents give backing to Southwark's free heatlhy school meals scheme

The council is rolling out free healthy school meals to 21,000 pupils across 70 primary schools regardless of family income. It is expected to save a typical family with two children at primary school £700 a year.

Currently, all pupils in reception and year one classes are benefitting. It will be rolled out to other primary year groups so that by September 2013 all primary school pupils will benefit. It follows a successful pilot at ten schools between January and June this year.

Local parents who took part in the pilot said it had helped them save money and improve their children's diet.

Commenting on the scheme, one parent said: "When my wife and I were both working it was not such a problem to find the money for school meals, but I lost my job six months ago and was not entitled to benefit so this has been a god send for us."

Another said: "I have twin boys in year one and since they started having school meals in January they have been requesting that I cook similar meals and I've had to familiarise myself with cooking vegetables I have never used before."

A third parent said: "My son was a poor eater at home but since he has been enjoying the social aspects of eating a meal with his friends and trying new foods his eating has improved."

Another added: "I have been able to put the money back to my child by buying books."

Other parents said their children's concentration had improved and they were now prepared to eat more healthy food at home.

The comments were published in an evaluation report on the free healthy school meals programme reviewed by the education and children's services scrutiny sub-committee last week.

Council chiefs said they would learn lessons from the development phase to help inform the roll out to all primary school year groups by 2013.

The evaluation identified extra support that schools may need to implement the programme and the need for the development of a registration system to highlight those families already eligible for, but not claiming, government funded free school meals. This will ensure schools receive maximum income from central Government, some of which is based on their levels of government free school meals.

Catherine McDonald, Southwark's Cabinet Member for Children's Services, said: "The feedback we've had to date on our free healthy school meals programme has been very positive.

"When we came in as an administration, over a quarter of ten and 11 year olds were obese. Following the introduction of free healthy schools meals, parents are telling us that their children are now starting to eat more healthily. Crucially, it's also delivering savings for hard-pressed families by putting money back into their pockets.

"We'll use the results from the pilot scheme to help guide us for the eventual roll out of the programme to all primary year groups by 2013."

NHS figures show that Southwark has one of the highest levels of child obesity in the country. 26 percent of 10 and 11 year olds are obese. More than 40 percent of the borough's children are classed as "overweight and obese" when they leave primary school - compared to 33 percent nationally.