At the double - uptake of school meals in Royal Borough

The number of children eating school lunches in the Royal Borough has gone up in the last year - with primary school pupils doubling the national percentage increase.

Figures released by the School Food Trust show that the proportion of borough primary schoolchildren eating school lunches has increased by 4.4% (from 34.2% last year to 38.6% in 2009-10) - compared with an increase of 2.1% nationally.

Local secondary schools have seen a percentage increase of 1.4% in school meal take-up - once more beating the national average increase of just 0.8%. (The total average number of pupils from all schools in the borough taking a school lunch per day was 5,881 during the period April 2009 to March 2010.)

The annual survey of school meal take-up - carried out for the last five years by the School Food Trust and the Local Authority Caterers Association - showed that an additional 320,000 pupils across the country are now eating healthy school lunches compared with the year 2008-2009.

Cllr Eileen Quick, lead member for children's services, said: "These are very encouraging statistics, both at primary and secondary level - which reflect our commitment to providing healthy school meals with the important energy and nutrients growing children need.

"Although the numbers of children enjoying school meals has increased since the introduction of national standards for school meals there is still work to do to maintain that increase in uptake.

"We will continue to work closely with our school meals service to ensure that we maintain not only quality but affordable prices and genuine value for money."

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