School meal

In the areas in 1944 it was made compulsory for local authorities to provide school dinners, with legal nutritional requirements. Free school meals were available to children with families on very low incomes. As a result, staple traditional "school dinner" foods became embedded in the national psyche from the 1950s onwards. "School puddings" in particular refers to desserts traditionally (historically) served with school dinners, in state and private schools. Examples include tarts such as gypsy tart and Manchester tart and hot puddings such as spotted dick and treacle sponge pudding.

In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government ended entitlement to free meals for thousands of children, and obliged local authorities to open up provision of school meals to competitive tender. This was intended to reduce the cost of local-authority-provided school meals, but caused an eMedical Research Council suggested that despite rationing, children in 1950 had healthi their counterparts in the 1990s, with more nutrients and lower levels of fat and sugar.

This became a major topic of debate in 2004 when chef Jamie Oliver spearheaded a campaign to improve the quality of school meals. School dinners at state schools during this time had normally been made by outside caterers. The schools sold a lot of deep-fried fast-food like chips, fried turkey nuggets, pizza and pies. After the programme was shown on Channel 4 (Jamie's School Dinners), the public showed support for the increase of funding for school meals, causing the government to create the School Food Trust. The topic became a factor in the 2005 UK general election. Some parents opposed Oliver and the scenes of parents passing hot-dogs and hamburgers and chips through school fences was seen.