Tim Ross, Education Correspondent London Evening Standard 13.07.10
Parents are undermining the drive to cut obesity by sending children to school with junk food as packed lunches, the healthy eating czar said today. Chocolates, crisps and sugary fizzy drinks have been banned from school canteens but still feature in lunch boxes, according to School Food Trust chairman Rob Rees. Mr Rees, the leading chef in charge of the government quango, suggested tightening the rules on what parents should be allowed to give their children to take into school. The best move would be for children to eat the healthy food in canteens and stop bringing lunch-boxes into school, he said. “The most important thing is the hot school meal. It is the best value alternative.” The Labour government established the Trust and introduced tighter rules for school dinners after TV chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign five years ago.But while school cooks have improved, more needs to be done to convince parents, even in “fairly middle-class affluent areas”, according to Mr Rees. Government figures last week showed a surge in the number of pupils eating the more nutritious lunches in schools – and London is leading the way with 62.5 per cent of inner city primary pupils regularly eating healthy canteen lunches, up from 56.7 per cent last year. Margaret Morrissey, founder of parents’ lobby group www.Parentsoutloud.com said the Trust should “get off our backs”. She said: “I understand the School Food Trust, Jamie Oliver and the Government having an opinion on our children and their health.”But at the end of the day the parents must make the decision. It is not the right of any of these bodies to make parents feel guilty or inadequate by the way they choose to bring up and feed their children.”Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told doctors this month that Oliver’s approach to tackling childhood obesity would never work. The minister was also in trouble for saying people should feel free to eat crisps and Mars bars occasionally. Anti-obesity campaigners called his comments “horrifying”.