What were your school dinners like?

[sheldonboy]

I have lived in Birmingham all of my life (so far). I used to love my school dinners. they were great and at the time cost 5/- per week.

The chocolate concrete for pudding always went down well, with beautiful thick custard.

Just for interest, Custard was invented in Birmingham By Alfred Bird.

The Birds Custard factory was a great employer for years in Brum.

The Custard Factory no longer produces custard, it's a media centre. If you watch the Gadget Show on the Telly, that comes from there.

[Pete R]

Burgoyne Rd school early 1960's, beetroot, chips and cold brisket, the brisket was nearly white it had that much fat in it, yeuch.

[Plain Talker]

I think the prefabricated buildings that people remember appeared after the war. As far as I know school dinners came along because of the war, it wasn't considered safe for pupils to walk home for dinner as was once the common practice. So school dinners, along with free school milk and hastily erected buildings became part of the post-war deal.

 

a quick history of school meals

 

School meals were provided as a charitable act from the mid-nineteenth century and expanded after the 1870 Education Act, amid rising concerns about undernourished children. Manchester and Bradford began to provide school meals, and lobbied central government to legislate encouraging other local authorities to follow. The Liberal government elected in 1906 introduced policies dealing with the poor health of Britain's children, with an urgency brought on by fears about the nation's capability for war and colonial conquests. These policies included the 1906 entitlement for local authorities to provide food for poor children. By 1945 1.6 million meals were being provided, 14% free and the rest charged at the cost of ingredients.

 

School meal provision was made compulsory, by the 1944 Education Act, which made it a statutory duty rather than optional entitlement for local authorities. This was part of the wide political shift of the 1940s under Labour that involved the creation of the welfare state and the NHS. In 1945 school meals were described by the Ministry of Education as having 'a vital place in national policy for nutrition and well-being of children.' A 1999 survey by the Medical Research Council suggested that despite rationing, children in 1950 had healthier diets than their counterparts in the 1990s, with more nutrients and lower levels of fat and sugar. Regulated nutritional standards, having been introduced in 1906, were standardised in 1966.

 

These provisions were removed by the 1980 Education Act of Margaret Thatcher's government. The act removed the requirement to provide school meals of any nutritional standard and statutory requirement to provide meals other than for eligible children of families on income support.

[mikeG]

At Lydgate Lane Juniors and King Teds in the 50's, I found school dinners inedible and either went home for lunch or took sandwiches.