80% Walsall pupils take up free school dinner offer
More than 80 per cent of children are taking up a free meal offer at schools in a Black Country borough following a Government initiative, figures have shown.
Walsall Council received more than £600,000 in funding to provide a meal for four to seven year-olds in schools.
It is available in 32 schools and to 1,400 youngsters, with council chiefs believing the level of take up will continue to rise.
An extra 27 members of staff have been recruited to help with the service run through Walsall catering service.
An update report on the scheme, which saves parents around £430 a year, has been provided to the council from head of leisure Chris Holliday and Jackie Groves and catering services manager.
It states: "This initiative is to provide nutritional, healthy meals to all children at Key Stage 1.
"A meal is available for all key stage one pupils and current take-up is 80 per cent.
"This varies between schools, some showing 100 per cent take up and the lowest at 66 per cent.
"Reasons for low take-up are currently being investigated by catering services and assistance offered to schools if required.
"There appears to be no single reason for low take-up but it does generally appear to rely upon the acceptance of the parents to encourage their children to have the free meal and also how positive a school might be to the initiative.
"Some parents still prefer their children to have food from home. Sometimes the pressure to use a new Peppa Pig, for example, lunch box has been given as a reason too.
"Despite the current 80 per cent take up, it is anticipated that this will continue to increase during the spring months."
It added that plans are being put in place for reception admissions in September.
The new policy has been one aspect of the work that the Government is doing to improve the provision of meals in schools.
In 2013, it published the School Food Plan, which aims to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food.
A total of £150m was made available to improve schools' kitchen and dining facilities, with an additional £22.5m specifically to help smaller schools.
It is also hoped that the availability of free school meals will help reduce the obesity problem, with around 20 per cent of children currently classed as obese by the time they leave primary school.
