New figures from Britain's School Food Trust show only a slight increase in the number of children eating school meals after government efforts to improve quality, according to Reuters. The School Food Trust - set up in 2005, the same year as celebrity British chef Jamie Oliver campaigned on television against unhealthy school dinners - reported an increase of secondary school pupils eating school meals to 36 percent in 2008-09 from 35.5 percent in 2007-08, and to 43.9 percent from 43.8 percent of pupils at primary schools over the same period. "I am heartened that take up has increased slightly in primary schools following the introduction of new nutrient-based standards and am convinced we are winning the battle for the hearts, minds and tastebuds of children and parents," School Food Trust Chair Prue Leith said in a press statement this week. "It is particularly pleasing that secondary schools have turned the corner." However, Steve Quinn, managing director of school catering company Cucina told Reuters that greater interest in school dinners was limited by caterers who emphasise the healthiness of their food to children who are mainly interested in what they think is "tasty". "You can't expect kids to buy things just because they're healthy, or just because they're told to," Quinn said, adding that Cucina followed a programme of "stealthy eating". "We're sneaking goodness into the foods that they want to buy," he said. Some students said poor preparation of food and unappetising presentation have turned them off school dinners. "The meat was either undercooked or overcooked, never right, and it never looked very appetising," 16-year-old Ellie Fever told Reuters when asked about the dinners at her secondary school in London. Britain's Local Authority Caterers Association said in the School Trust press statement that caterers were encouraged by signs that children's eating habits were beginning to turn around, but recognised there was more work to do. "We need to focus on improving partnerships with Head Teachers, encouraging whole school food policies and demonstrating to young people the benefits of choosing healthier food," LACA chairman Neil Porter said in the statement.
