NICK CLEGG UK’s Deputy Premier
All infants in England to get free school lunches (“A healthy hot meal gives children the ability to concentrate and do well in the classroom” – Nick Clegg: UK’s Deputy Prime Minister)
All pupils at infant schools in England are to get free school lunches from next September, Lib Dem leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg has announced.
The change – for children in reception, year one and year two – will save parents about £400 a year per child.
Targeting infants would ensure “every child gets the chance in life they deserve”, teach healthy eating habits and boost attainment, Mr Clegg said.
But Labour said the Lib Dems could not be trusted to deliver.
Money is being provided for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to emulate the English scheme, but as education is a devolved issue, it is up to those running schools there to decide whether to spend the money on free lunches.
A Scottish government spokesman said: “We are committed to expanding this provision further and, once we see the financial implications of this announcement for Scotland, we will examine how best to deliver that expansion.”
‘Feeling the squeeze’
‘Feeling the squeeze’
Free primary school meals for all pupils was one of the recommendations of a recent review of school food by two founders of the Leon restaurant chain for the Department for Education.
All pupils at infant schools in England are to get free school lunches from next September, Lib Dem leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg has announced.
The change – for children in reception, year one and year two – will save parents about £400 a year per child.
Targeting infants would ensure “every child gets the chance in life they deserve”, teach healthy eating habits and boost attainment, Mr Clegg said.
But Labour said the Lib Dems could not be trusted to deliver.
Money is being provided for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to emulate the English scheme, but as education is a devolved issue, it is up to those running schools there to decide whether to spend the money on free lunches.
A Scottish government spokesman said: “We are committed to expanding this provision further and, once we see the financial implications of this announcement for Scotland, we will examine how best to deliver that expansion.”
‘Feeling the squeeze’
‘Feeling the squeeze’
Free primary school meals for all pupils was one of the recommendations of a recent review of school food by two founders of the Leon restaurant chain for the Department for Education.
Providing them for all infants will cost an estimated £600m and comes after the previously universal child benefit was cut for those earning more than £50,000 a year.
The Lib Dems also announced that poorer college students will be entitled to free school meals – on the same basis as those studying at school sixth forms.
“The news will no doubt be welcomed by disadvantaged students and their parents at a time when family budgets are being stretched to the limit,” said Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges.
But Labour’s Stephen Twigg said: “After three years of broken promises and empty words, people have come to judge the Lib Dems on what they do, not what they say.
“They talk about helping families but they will have taken up to £7bn a year of support away from children by 2015. They talk about helping with school meals after supporting the Tories in scrapping Labour’s plans to extend free meals for school kids. You can’t trust a word the Lib Dems say.”
Marriage tax break
Marriage tax break
Asked if it was fair to provide free schools lunches for the children of all, irrespective of wealth, Mr Clegg said: “We believe that where we can find the money, even in these difficult times, we need to really invest that money in giving all children regardless of their family background the very best possible start in life.”
He said the details of where the money to fund the lunches was coming from would be given in Chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement.
At a briefing ahead of the announcement the Lib Dems suggested they had got the funding for school lunches in return for allowing Conservative plans for a marriage tax break.
The Department for Education ordered a review by restaurateurs Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent into the state of school meals in 2012 following strong criticism from TV chef Jamie Oliver, who earlier led a successful campaign to ban junk and processed food from school canteens.
Mr Oliver’s campaign resulted in tight nutritional guidelines and healthy eating policies in many schools for those bringing packed lunches.
But in 2011 he claimed that standards were being eroded because academies and free schools were exempt from national nutritional guidelines.
Mr Dimbleby said he was “absolutely buzzing” following Mr Clegg’s announcement.
He said: “Even those who have free school meals already benefit from this change of culture… Hopefully it will be the first step on the road to free school meals for everyone.”
Source: BBC
The Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme now known as O-MEALS is the one of the few surviving school meal programmes in the country. It was formerly known as the Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFP) . This has now been restructured and enhanced by the administration of the State of Osun, to reach a larger number of students (254,000) and to empower over 3000 community caterers.
Happy kids
Happy Kids empowered by O MEAL
The programme was initiated by the Federal Government in 2004 through the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act. On assumption of office, the present administration undertook a comprehensive review of the inherited school feeding arrangement and came up with an overhauled and rebranded programme that was officially launched on the 30th April 2012. Implementation in primary schools is ongoing throughout the State. The key areas of improvement undertaken by the current administration are, inclusion of elementary year 4 , thereby increasing beneficiaries to 254,000, Capacity Development and Empowerment 3007 Community Caterers , Backwards Integration to Local Markets and Process Improvements
This scheme has gained international endorsement as well. In November 2012, Partnership for Child Development (PCD) United Kingdom and the Government of the State of Osun signed the Osun Elementary School Feeding Transition Strategy Plan Document to further strengthen the programme.
O-MEALS aims to reverse the very low academic performance of pupils noting that good nutrition is necessary for development of cognitive skills. The daily feeding allowance for each pupil has also been increased from ₦50.00 to ₦250.00.
OMEAL Cooks
For effective service a total number of 3,007 food vendors/cooks were trained and are currently employed to serve midday meals for pupils of classes 1, 2 , 3 and 4 in all primary schools in the State of Osun. For easy identification, each of the food vendors was provided with uniforms free of charge.
The uniforms provided include gowns, aprons, and caps. The government of the State of Osun also facilitated provision of cooking utensils for each of the caterers at minimal cost. First Bank PLC granted a loan of ₦124.5 million to 123 cooperative groups of food vendors for purchasing cooking utensils. The government of the State of Osun also agreed to pay the interest accrued on the loan facility and food vendors are to repay the loan within 36 months (3 years).
The programme has helped increase school enrolment by a minimum of 25% since the commencement of the revised programme.
All food items being utilised for feeding pupils are available locally and this is to boost the income of local farmers and others on the supply chain. Nutrition experts developed a menu-table of foods to be served to School pupils.
| MENU TABLE | |
| DAYS | DETAIL OF MEALS TO BE SERVED |
| MONDAYS | YAM + FISH STEW + ORANGE |
| TUESDAYS | RICE + BEANS + STEW + CHICKEN + ORANGE |
| WEDNESDAYS | BEANS PORRIDGE + BREAD + WHOLE EGG + BANANA |
| THURSDAYS | RICE + EGUSI GARNISHED WITH VEGETABLE + CHICKEN + BANANA |
| FRIDAYS | PORRIDGE + VEGETABLE + BEEF + A SLICE OF PAWPAW OsunDefender |
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