Opinion

Hot school meals: A close look at the ingredients list is not pretty. This is industrial food

While aimed at child health and rolled out impressively fast, school food merits better use of public money by the Government

Taoiseach Simon Harris: In the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis, here is a Government-funded programme providing food at school every day in single-use disposable packaging despite the promise to move towards 'reusable alternatives'. Photograph: Government Information Service

Ruth Hegarty
Tue Apr 30 2024 - 05:45

On day one of the hot school meals programme in a rural Galway primary school, the buzz of excitement from the children is palpable. Teachers distribute the hot lunches, each in a cardboard container with a clear lid, that have just arrived from the caterer in insulated boxes. Parents select meals on the supplier’s website. Chicken curry is today’s most popular choice, alongside mac and cheese, barbecue chicken, soup. One child gets plain pasta. The children make short work of the food; almost all containers are emptied and the reviews are positive. “I don’t like it, I love it,” says one boy. “Ten stars.” “It’s delicious,” say others.

Free school meals can be effective in addressing food poverty and an opportunity to improve child health. School meals can improve school attendance, behaviour and educational performance. Making them universal prevents stigma and encourages uptake. This is a progressive government policy, which appears to have been broadly welcomed by schools. Parents who often dread the daily drudgery of preparing packed lunches will be grateful to have one less task and one less cost, and to know that their child is fed.

In Ireland, an estimated one in five children are overweight or obese. Few eat the recommended five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables daily, and they consume too much sugar and ultra-processed food

Nine hundred new primary schools join the Department of Social Protection’s hot school meals scheme in the month of April, bringing schools participating to about 1,400. Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys looks set to roll out free hot school meals for every primary schoolchild by next year, well in advance of the original 2030 target. The scheme is likely to have cost €63 million last year. Bringing it to all schools is projected to cost about €300 million annually. The department allocates €3.20 per meal, but takes a hands-off approach to how it is spent. Schools are provided with the funds and carry out the tendering process themselves.

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The rapid roll-out of free hot school meals is impressive. This could be a historic opportunity to use public money for multiple co-benefits – to reduce inequalities, improve child health, contribute to education and engagement on food, create a guaranteed market for our farmers and, at the very least, do no harm to our environment. But are we opting simply to feed every child, rather than attempt to feed them well, and letting an unregulated market provide the solutions?

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In the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis, here is a fully Government-funded programme providing food to children every day in single-use disposable packaging, despite the 2022 Circular Economy Act promise to move us towards “reusable alternatives”. The school I visited contacted seven companies for proposals; none were offering a reuse solution. Through An Taisce’s Green Schools Programme, a generation of children have learned about the environment and reducing waste. Now they will bring home soiled cardboard boxes, lids and cutlery daily – or dump them in school. Replicated across the country, rolled out to all 550,000 primary schoolchildren, 183 school days per year, this will add 100 million single-use containers to our waste pile annually. How is the Government not environment-proofing every new policy and programme?

What I found was not pretty - dense ingredient lists and eye-watering use of additives and processing aids. This is industrial food

School food programmes can tangibly improve child nutrition. In Ireland, an estimated one in five children are overweight or obese. Few eat the recommended five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables daily, and they consume too much sugar and ultra-processed food. Yet many of the hot school meals on offer are almost entirely devoid of vegetables, despite the “Nutrition Standard for Hot School Meals” recommendation for two portions of fruit, vegetables or salad in every meal. Seeking out a more vegetable-focused option for my own son from our schools meal provider, I looked at the vegetarian lasagne. Rather than actual vegetables, it is based on soya mince (although it does contain tomato sauce and a little onion). I went down the rabbit hole of meal specification sheets and what I found was not pretty; dense ingredient lists and eye-watering use of additives and processing aids. This is industrial food.

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The truth is that €3.20 per meal does not leave much for quality ingredients when you factor in costs of production, delivery, scheme administration and some profit for suppliers. Looking into the meals from our school provider it rapidly became clear that little will make its way back to Irish farms. That popular chicken curry option: made with chicken from China. A roast chicken and mash dinner, made with chicken listed as origin “Europe-South America-Thailand”. Pasta Bolognese, lasagne, chilli con carne are all made from the same “pasta meat sauce”, listed as origin “Ireland”, but the origin of the beef itself is unclear. With few vegetables present, this certainly will not be helping our hard-pressed vegetable growers. This does not necessarily reflect the offering from all school meal providers, but who is monitoring this?

If using public money for food, should the Government not try to follow its own green public procurement guidelines to support Irish farmers, and reduce environmental harms? Shouldn’t it at least try to feed our children well?

This programme risks perpetuating existing issues and embedding industrial food in our schools. Why set the bar so low? Our children deserve better.

Ruth Hegarty is a food policy and sustainable food systems consultant, and lecturer in food policy at UCC

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