key figures

About 3.25 million school dinners get served every day. Meals cost £1.54 in primary and £1.62 in secondary school, 4% more than a year ago. About half of the cost goes on labour.

Last March, the government pledged £280 million over three years for school meals. The estimated capital cost of refurbishing school kitchens so they can prepare food from scratch again is £290 million, but this only covers schools that already have a kitchen. The estimated cost of installing new kitchens in schools would be £350 million. Many kitchens are also badly in need of an upgrade and new equipment to enable them to handle fresh ingredients.

This autumn, the government pledged further funds to subsidise ingredients for healthy meals, to set up a regional network of training kitchens for dinner ladies, to build kitchens in schools that currently have no faclities and to enable secondary school children to learn to cook at school.

Download more key figures below.



• Download (PDF, 39KB)

nora's notes

Nora’s given us a few bits of advice for dinner ladies about what she’s had to do over the last year to make her school meals service a success. You can also find out about the great snacks and healthy food she’s now got on the menu at mid-morning break.



• Download (PDF, 86KB)

Visit Nora at Nora's Kitchen.

school standards

The new school food standards mean that from this autumn, things have to change in all schools, and quite quickly too! Have a look at the School Food Trust website for a summary. You can download each new standard as well. It’s really important that schools and dinner ladies get loads of support while these changes are taking place.

Visit the School Food Trust website to find out more.