According to caterers, beef has been removed from the menus of some school lunches, and staples such as potatoes have become more expensive.
Some caterers have switched to less expensive imported meats and altered the available fruits and vegetables.
The English and Welsh school caterers’ association, Laca, reported that the quality of school meals was at risk.
The government of England has recently increased funding for free school meals for the youngest children.
Laira Green Primary School in Plymouth previously served local Cornish beef for its Thursday roast dinners but has since switched to gammon as a cheaper alternative.
Turkey has replaced chicken on the menu due to its lower price point.
The school is one of nearly seventy in the city that is served by the same catering company, which is altering its menus due to price increases.
Bernadette Kennedy, the school’s principal, was pleased that the school was still able to provide a “healthy roast meal,” but she added, “Some children stopped having roast dinner, and when we asked them why they said they missed the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.”
“That’s unfortunate, because with the roast meat comes an abundance of vegetables they may not otherwise try.”
Children enjoy the roast dinner with a courgette croquette as a vegetarian alternative.
Dylan, a fifth-grader, had finished his roast dinner and declared that he preferred the potatoes.
He stated, “I enjoy the flavor of the food and vegetables. It satisfies your hunger and provides you with energy.”
More than half of the school’s students are eligible for free school lunches, and teachers report that for some, it is their only meal of the day.
Even the potatoes have increased in price, as the Cornish supplier of the caterer has experienced rising fertilizer and fuel costs.
More than 160 companies responded to Laca’s request for information regarding costs and shortages.
They are collectively responsible for the meals of over one million students.
More than 60 percent of respondents said they had switched from British to foreign meat or were considering doing so soon.
In this large snapshot of the impact of rising food prices on school lunches, staples such as pasta, oil, frozen vegetables, and fish were among the most adversely affected.
Caterers reported cost increases of 20 to 30 percent for many products, with prices fluctuating frequently every week.
One catering company informed Laca that the price of 10 kilograms of prepared potatoes increased from £10.46 to £15.50, and the price of 60 eggs increased from £9.79 to £13.99.
In recent days, the price of ground beef, which is used to make lasagne and burgers, increased by 11 percent overnight.
The national vice-chairman of Laca, Brad Pearce, stated that the long-term effects of Covid, the war in Ukraine, and rising fuel prices were affecting what his members could put on school plates.
Many caterers also struggled to fill positions in school kitchens.
Mr. Pearce stated, “The impending costs make it impossible for us to continue without making some extremely difficult decisions.
These included consuming more processed foods and importing meat, he added.
“We don’t want to do that, but to keep food on the table, we must consider all possibilities.”
Eighty percent of the school catering service in England and Wales is provided by Laca members.
Assist FM, the organization representing Scottish caterers, reports that its members share similar concerns.
The budget is limited by what parents are willing to pay and government funding, so the rising costs are significant.
All state school students in England from Reception to Year 2 are entitled to free school meals during the school year.
The government pays for these universal free school meals for infants at a daily rate that is now £2.41 per child, following a 7p increase from April of this year, totaling an additional £18 million annually.
In England, only children from families with the very lowest incomes are entitled to a free school lunch beginning in the third grade; the current daily cost is approximately £2.47.
Child poverty activists and school caterers concur that costs are rising faster than funding at a time when a hot lunch at school has become increasingly important for many families.
This year, 1,9 million children in England are receiving free school meals, an increase of 160,000 from January 2021.
The rising cost of food in Wales could hurt the funding required to implement ambitious plans to provide free school meals to all primary school students by 2024.
In its response to the independent food strategy in England, the government did not address a recommendation to provide free hot school meals to all children from universal credit-eligible families.
There are mandatory food standards that school lunches must meet, and caterers report that they are still able to do so, albeit with increasing difficulty; they are permitted to substitute foods.
The government stated, in response to the concerns, that it had “expanded access to free school meals more than any other [government] in recent decades”.
“We will also continue to review eligibility and work across government to address rising costs, in addition to the £37 billion announced to assist the most vulnerable”.
