Healthy meals, better learners? Debating the focus of school food policy in England

Abstract

Policy makers in the UK are trying to improve school meals, by focusing on eating well. This article explores the way policies are framed by academic performance and health as a reason for providing school lunches. Using Nussbaum’s capability approach we argue that the purpose of schooling should be to provide young people with the ability to lead a life of choice. We argue that school meals are an important social good, which allow young people to develop critical skills around food which they can then use throughout their lives. We draw on evidence from two ethnographic research projects on food in schools, conducted in England. We question whether the collocation between healthy eating and learning should be the focus of school food reform and contemplate the role of society and government to provide children with healthy meals, irrespective of learning outcomes. School meals are more than good exam results.

Keywords:

• School meals
• policy
• social learning
• healthy citizen

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge both reviewers for their feedback throughout.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and that the research follows the University of Leicester and University of Nottingham’s code of ethical practice and meets the requirements of the Human Subject Research (HSR) with children. All research conducted was carried out appropriately in conjunction with the HSR and British Educational Research (BERA, 2018) guidelines.

Notes

1 Free school meals are provided to children from families who qualify for state benefits such as the Child Tax Credit or Income Support. All children in Reception, Years 1 and 2 are eligible for free school meals if they attend a government-funded school in England.

2 We are aware that the notion of ‘choice’ in school is still heavily restricted and managed through adult rules.