Schools struggling to keep healthy meals on menu as ingredient costs soar

The drive to make school meals healthier is being jeopardised by the soaring cost of staple foods, leaving canteens struggling to provide nutritious and cheap dinners, local authorities say.

Double-digit increases in the cost of foodstuffs such as bread, eggs and cooking oil have left local authorities struggling to maintain high-quality subsidised dinners. Dining hall managers have given warning that, if they pass on the rising costs of presenting healthy meals, parents may tell their children to eat less healthy food outside schools.


They fear that, if the take-up of meals drops, the purchasing power of local councils will fall, raising costs further and causing canteens to disappear from schools completely.

The average price of a school meal to parents last year in England was