Week of free school dinners for borough's infants
Every child starting primary school in the North East borough of Gateshead this September will be offered free school dinners for one week in a bid to convince more parents to sign up for them.
It is the third year running the council has been running the £15,000-a-year scheme which, it says, has seen a surge in the number of pupils continuing to eat the £2-a-day cooked meals. Of those families who already qualify for free dinners, 20% are currently not taking them up.
It follows a national drive earlier this year to ban packed lunches in schools after a government report called the School Food Plan said they were too often not nutritious enough.
BBC Radio 5 live's Breakfast heard from Dale Robson who oversees catering for Gateshead Council. He said: "It helps us demonstrate the quality of modern day school catering and also underlines the importance of providing children with the fuel they need for a busy school day."
05 Sep 2013
- From the section Education & Family