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A recent survey by the School Food
Trust found that four out of five children
eating school meals have tried food
in the school canteen that they would
never try at home.
In a poll of 1,000 parents, more than 80
per cent of those with children who eat
school meals said their youngsters had
experimented with new foods at
school, with a further 50 per cent of
parents reporting they’d been asked to
make dishes at home that their children
had eaten at school.
The poll also found that carrots,
sweetcorn and peas remain the most
popular vegetables for children, with
aubergine, chickpeas and spinach
ranked amongst the least favourite.
The Trust commissioned the poll
following a Mumsnet survey in 2009,
which suggested that some parents
choose packed lunches for their
children because they worry that they
are too fussy to eat anything else.
Chairman of the Trust, Rob Rees, said:
“Every parent knows it’s a nightmare
watching their child push food around
the plate. School meals can be a
great way to help parents encourage
their children to try new foods and
to increase the variety of foods in
their diet.
“I think we all remember wanting to
eat like our friends at school - it has a
huge influence on what children are
prepared to try, so school meals are
a good option for fussy eaters.”
Mumsnet co-founder, Carrie Longton,
said: “Getting children to eat healthily
is every parent’s dream, but meal times
at home can often be a battle ground
and emotionally charged. From
mumsnetters’ experience it seems that
once at school there’s a desire to fit in
with everyone else and even some
positive peer pressure to boast about
the variety of what foods you can eat.
School meals have also moved on
quite a bit from when mumsnetters
were at school, with healthier options
and more variety. It’s hard, not to
mention extraordinarily time-consuming
and sometimes counter-productive,
to get the same variety into a
packed lunch.”
The trust suggests school cooks could
use self-service to encourage even very
young children to put a variety of foods
on their plates. They recommend every
pupil takes at least one spoonful of
everything on offer and then they are
allowed a second spoonful of anything
they particularly like. Parents could also
be invited to the school to eat with their
children on certain days.
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