Free school meals improve children’s diets

Expanding free school meals for all could improve children's diets, but there's still room for improvement when it comes to nutritional quality

Key Findings

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The Universal Infant Free School Meal policy has led to children consuming fewer ultra-processed foods at lunchtime. This change is mainly due to a reduction in pre-packaged items typically found in lunches brought from home.
Children from low-income households eating school meals experience the greatest benefits from the policy. They consume nearly a fifth less ultra-processed food at lunch, both in terms of weight and calories.
Despite these improvements, school meals still contain substantial amounts of ultra-processed foods. Enhancing the nutritional quality of school meals provided and encouraging school meal uptake could maximise the benefits of the policy.

Source*

Parnham, J.C., Chang, K., Rauber, F. et al. Evaluating the impact of the universal infant free school meal policy on the ultra-processed food content of children’s lunches in England and Scotland: a natural experiment. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 21, 124 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-024-01656-w

*All evidence briefs are informed by one or more peer reviewed research studies. All study publications used to inform this article are listed at the bottom of this brief with links.

Woman gives lunch to school boy in cafeteria

Image: pixelshot via canva.com

Aimee Eckert

14 Jan 2025

What's this about?

Providing universal free school meals could help make children’s diets healthier, especially for the most disadvantaged students

The Universal Infant Free School Meal policy reduces the amount of ultra-processed food children eat at lunchtime, especially for those from lower-income families, a new study reveals.

British children often eat a lot of ultra-processed food — things like sugary cereals, fizzy drinks, and packaged snacks. While these products are cheap and widely available, they're not particularly nutritious. Excessive consumption of such foods has been linked to health issues in both children and adults.^1,2

The Universal Infant Free School Meal policy was introduced in England in September 2014 and in Scotland in January 2015. Since then, some parts of the UK have made it available to all primary school kids (ages 4–11). But until now, no one knew how this policy affected what kids were eating.

A team of researchers from Imperial College London investigated this. They analysed survey data comparing the nutritional intake of two groups: 4–7-year-olds receiving free meals under the policy, and 8–11-year-olds who are ineligible for free meals.³

The findings indicate that the policy reduces ultra-processed food consumption at lunchtime by 7%. This is mainly because kids are eating less ultra-processed items often found in packed lunches from home, like highly processed bread, sugary drinks, and salty snacks.

It's worth noting that the study only looked at about 800 kids in each group, so they might have missed some smaller changes. The researchers also compared the diets of different age groups, so the groups weren't perfectly matched. However, by focusing solely on school lunchtimes rather than the entire day, the researchers believe age differences had no real impact on results.

This study shows the policy effectively reduces health inequalities in young people’s diets. The researchers say the findings support the expansion of universal free school meal policies to more young people the UK.

Research Toolkit

This study highlights the nutritional advantages of free school meals, what can we learn?

KEY FINDINGS

FREE SCHOOL MEALS BOOST KIDS' NUTRITION: This research found that school meals have 7% less ultra-processed food (UPF) than packed lunches. This is mostly due to more minimally processed foods like dairy, rice, and pasta, and fewer processed snacks, bread, and drinks.
LOW-INCOME KIDS BENEFIT MOST: School meals cut UPF intake the most for low-income kids, reducing grams and calories from UPF by 18–19%. For middle- and high-income kids, UPF intake stayed the same.
SCHOOL MEALS COULD STILL BE BETTER: School meal uptake means that kids are replacing UPF with more minimally processed dairy, meat, and carbohydrates. However, kids aren't eating more fresh fruit and veg during school meals compared to packed lunches.
FREE SCHOOL MEALS BOOST CONSUMPTION: Since the start of the free school meal policy, 25% more kids eat school meals. Removing the financial barrier of a school meal has made healthier lunches accessible to more children.

WHAT ELSE

MAKE FREE SCHOOL MEALS AVAILABLE FOR ALL: School lunches are a big part of kids' weekly nutrition and offer a great opportunity to improve their diets. Without a comprehensive universal free school meal policy, many kids in need lose access to nutritious options and end up resorting to less healthy packed lunches as they grow older.
BOOST RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO SCHOOLS: Up to 20% of Key Stage 1 students do not opt for their free meal, suggesting a lack of appeal to both children and parents. Increasing the amount of funding and resources available for schools to prepare more nutritious meals could boost confidence among parents and uptake from students.
ADDRESS WIDER BARRIERS TO HEALTHY EATING: Low-income families face many barriers to balanced diets, including financial constraints, time poverty, and limited cooking facilities. UPFs offer a quick, cheap solution. Targeted policies are needed to address root causes of UPF consumption and promote healthier choices beyond school hours.
INTERNATIONAL LEARNINGS: In Brazil, a national policy for school meals limits spending on processed and ultra-processed foods to 20% of the school food budget. Whilst some schools voluntarily implement similar schemes, adopting such a rule in national school food standards could enhance the effectiveness and health benefits of universal free school meals.