With three local authorities in England adopting Soil Association Food for Life targets and over 500 schools pledging their support 1000s of children are already benefiting from Food for Life meals.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director says: "Although there is a long way to go, these schools show that more children will eat healthy food and that school meals can be healthy, nutritious and good for the environment. "

Jamie Oliver has endorsed the Soil Association’s critical role in driving improvements on school food, “The Food for Life project by the Soil Association launched the public debate on the quality of school meals”

Statistics on Food for Life Schools spending and take-up of school dinners:
School Spend on Ingredients (p) Cost of Meal (£) Uptake (%)

All Saints Primary School, Ilkley 70 1.60 79
Lethbridge Primary School, Wiltshire 80 2.00 60
Mornington Primary School, Notts 85 1.59 65
Southdown Infants School, Bath 75 1.50 80
East Ayrshire (11 schools in FFL pilot) 75 1.48 68
Thomas Fairchild Community School, Hackney 67 1.60 90

Essex schools are among the leaders of the school food revolution. 6,000 pupils in 50 Essex schools are benefiting from meals that meet the Food for Life targets. With the help of Ashlyns Organics Ltd and pioneering dinner lady and writer Jeanette Orrey, school meals have been transformed in just six months. Uptake has grown by 45%, in some schools by as much as 150% after introducing tasty menus, cooked from fresh using local and organic ingredients. Meals cost on average £1.70 - 70p of which is spent on ingredients. In contrast, an earlier Soil Association survey revealed that the average spend on ingredients in England is just 51p.

The secret ingredients for success in Essex are Ashlyn’s training kitchen for school cooks, teaching school cooks to cook from scratch, using fresh produce, a menu development service to ensure meals are tasty and nutritionally balanced, and a producer co- operative to supply local schools fresh from local and often organic farms. To top it all they also offer farm visits hosting up to 90 children a day so they can experience a farm and see where their food comes from.

In London, Soho Parish school in Westminster opened its new school meals service this week, with nutritious meals, after building a new kitchen. The school teamed up with Eagle Solutions2 to serve organic meat, vegetables and bread. Meal numbers leapt up from 68 to 124 in just one week. Also in London, Morningside school in Hackney, serves 70% of its children a local and organic school lunch, this is backed up by cooking clubs and food tasting. Both schools are working towards Food for Life Targets.

In Bradford, the amount spent on school meal ingredients per child has risen by 14p since May 2005 to 60p. 20% of the food served is local, along with organic carrots and milk. Despite this, the price paid by parents has remained low (£1.25) and uptake is well above average, at 56%.