School meals in the UK

Food, Health, News articles, UK No Responses »
May 202010

By Smitha Peter

According to United Nations Convention, every child has a right to not to go hungry and provision of free school meals is a way to address this problem. But how effective is the school meal program in UK at present? “More than one million children living in poverty don’t qualify for free school meals as per current policy and 39% of those who are eligible won’t take them,” said Professor Martin Caraher, Centre for Food Policy, City University in his lecture on the topic ‘Food Poverty and Inequality: The growth of hunger in the UK’.

Healthy school meals have the capacity to reduce dietary inequalities. Image credit: Henrique Dante de Almeida

Current policy excludes secondary school children from working house holds with a low income. This means around 60% of secondary students living in poor household are not eligible for free school meals. At the same time many children who are eligible won’t take it because of the issues related to stigma and availability of low priced unhealthy food.

The Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey by Food Standard Agency reveal that children from low income families eat more fast food and processed meat than those from richer background. They often eat inadequate level of iron, folate and vitamin D.

The Survey also observed that 36% of low-income population cannot afford to eat balanced meals, 22% report reducing or skipping meals and 5% do not have enough money to eat for a full day. Local variation in food prices makes the existing situation worse.

Providing free school meals to all children from households earning below £20,000 a year would cost an extra £1.53 billion a year. However, it can reduce the cost of health related diseases and can increase work place productivity in long run. At present child poverty costs the health care system £2 billion a year.

Children currently eligible for free school meals:

  1. Children whose parents are getting
    • Income support
    • Income-based jobseeker’s allowance
    • Income-related employment and supporters allowance
    • Support under part VI of immigration and asylum act
    • The guarantee credit of pension credit
  2. Children whose parents are workless, with an annual income of £16,190 or less
  3. Primary school children from working house hold with an income below £16,190

Children who are not eligible:

  1. Secondary school children from working households with a low income
  2. Primary school children whose parents have a household income over £16,190
Posted by Smitha Peter at 6:38 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

New allotment to grow ‘Food in the City'

Fair Trade, Food, News articles, Pollution, Sustainability, Transport, Video No Responses »
Apr 172010

By Charlotte King and Laura Husband

The ‘Food in the City’ project based at City University, Islington, plans to grow food on a derelict site in the centre of London by Summer 2010.

Laura Husband and Charlotte King speak to one of the project’s organisers, Imogen Riley to find out how it’s going to work.

But will it be safe to eat fruit and vegetables grown in a polluted city?

Professor of environmental pollution, Nigel Bell from Imperial College London gives his expert opinion on how pollution will affect the food and whether he’d personally choose to eat it.

Posted by Charlotte King at 7:10 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

Organic Fairtrade: a jury on the double label

Fair Trade, Food, News articles No Responses »
Mar 102010

By Smitha Peter and Aine Gormley

According to the Fairtrade Foundation, one third of Fairtrade products are also organic. These organic Fairtrade products are often more expensive than non-organic Fairtrade products. Research has shown the organic Fairtrade label to positively impact the perceived quality of the products.

Does the fact that price premiums are given to Fairtrade farmers for organic production (because of the environmental benefits) justify the Fairtrade Foundation to stamp the double label and bump up the price?

Certified Fair Trade quinoa farmers in Ecuador

“Fairtrade is about fairer terms of trade for producers to affluent markets – it is not about environmental standards per se,” according to Dr David Barling, Reader in Food Policy at City University London.

“Agri-chemicals are part of conventional agricultural production systems – as long as the chemicals are not banned in the importing countries,” Dr Barling added.

The research conducted by Dr Didier Tagbata at University of Valencia suggested that although the double label enhanced perception of the product, people are not ready to pay more for organic and fair trade products. Dr Tagbata warned that markets for these two products must not be overestimated.

Martin Caraher, a Professor in Food and Health Policy at City University London, agrees that most people will only buy the double-labelled product if the price is no higher than the non-organic Fairtrade product.

“If you’ve got a Fairtrade product, and another one that is Fairtrade and organic, which is more expensive, in nine cases out of ten fairtrade only product will win out.” Prof Caraher said.

He added that, “People tend to trade off psychologically about Fairtrade. It makes them feel better by paying a couple of pence for the Fairtrade product. It is an interesting link. Consumers are consuming Fairtrade rather than Fairtrade being a part of each and every product.”

But Dr Tagbata claims that generalisations cannot be made as only 50 per cent of the customers studied linked Fairtrade and organic products to social and environmental concerns.

“The results should be checked on representatives in several countries,” Dr Tagbata said.

Posted by Smitha Peter at 2:53 pm Tagged with: , , ,