Free School Meals.
Authors Hannah Ensaff, Jean Russell and Margo E. Barker, University of Sheffield
Published by Public Health Nutrition, December 2013
SUMMARY
Researchers from the University of Sheffield wanted to examine the food choices children make at school. In particular they wanted to see how students' food choices related to school nutritional standards, and whether poorer children made different choices to their more affluent peers.
They studied 2,660 11- to 18-year-olds in two schools in Yorkshire, both of which held National Healthy School Status and used the local authority catering service. Take-up of free school meals in School A was nine per cent, below the national average of 15.9 per. In School B take-up of free school meals was above the national average at 17 per cent. The researchers used data from the schools' electronic card payment systems to analyse students' choices over a seven-month period in 2010/11. Children eligible for free school meals made up nine per cent of the students using the catering facilities in School A and 22 per cent in School B.
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