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Drop in school meal price would increase healthy eating |
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Thursday, 07 January 2010 |
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The School Food Trust is urging schools to mirror high street shops and bring in January sales-style discounts on school meals to encourage healthy eating. The trust says that such a move would dramatically increase take-up of healthy school meals as demand for school food is more sensitive to price changes than other foods. Research by London Economics unveiled by the trust this week estimates that a 10 per cent increase in the price of school meals can lead to a fall in take-up of between seven and 10 per cent.
Trust chief executive Judy Hargadon, said: "We know that caterers are already working hard to keep costs down in a very tough trading environment. "But if we want to make sure that more children have access to a well-balanced school lunch and that school meals can play their full part in improving children's health, we can't ignore what our customers are telling us about the price they're prepared to pay." Around £240m worth of funding through the School Lunch Grant has been made available to councils between 2008 and 2011 to help them keep the price of school meals down.The trust adds that areas where discounts have been offered have successfully boosted demand. A three-week period of discounts in 2009 in York and Waltham Forest increased take-up by 22 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, according to the research called An Analysis of the Relationship Between School Meal Take-up and Prices.
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