According to the Global Survey of School Meal Programs, around 407 million children worldwide access school meals.

An upcoming exhibition at the Food Museum is set to explore school dinners past, present and future. The Food Museum in Stowmarket is the UK’s only museum dedicated to food. The museum explores themes connected by food – social, historical, technological, industrial, environmental – and gives visitors hands-on experiences which bring processes alive, teaches skills and shares memories.

Here in the Food and Nutrition NBRI team we have been working with the Food Museum, using our expertise in nutritional data analysis to develop an exhibit about how the nutrition of school dinners has evolved.

Variety of school dinners

School meal programs are designed to promote good nutrition while also promoting school attendance and learning.

The style and type of foods served in school meals across the world vary hugely according to cultural norms. Four course meals including a main dish, side dish, dairy or cheese and a starter or dessert are commonly served in France. While in Japan children enjoy traditional dishes such as curried rice with pickled vegetables or soba noodles with tempura vegetables.

In the UK, school meals date back to the beginning of the 20th century with the introduction of the Provision of Meals act 1906 designed to provide meals for children from poorer families. Since then, school meals have expanded considerably with 87% of students in the UK currently consuming a school meal at least once a week and 59% having one every day.

How we looked at the nutrition of school dinners

Recent media and research coverage have brandished school meals as ultra-processed, unhealthy and of varying quality. Whilst perceptions from parents and children of the quality and healthiness of the food are mixed. 

We have been working with the Food Museum to evaluate how nutritious the school dinners of today and from the last 90 years are. How do the meals served in schools today compare to the past, and were school meals really healthier in the past?

Our team sourced menus from previous decades through a local catering provider, google searches, and visiting history centres to review their archives and locate old menus and school cook recipe books. For decades where few official records of school menus and recipe books were found, we sent out a public survey to capture people’s memories of meals that were served when they were at school. We then used historical versions of the McCance and Widdowson Composition of Foods Data Tables to link the amounts of nutrients in foods from that time to the typical school meals being served.

Nutrients in foods have changed over time for several reasons including evolving farming practices and manufacturing formulations. Using school menus and nutrient composition tablesfrom the time helped us paint a picture of how the nutrition in school meals has changed.

Turning nutritional data into a public exhibition

We have evaluated how amounts of key nutrients such as fibre, protein, iron and calcium have changed as well as bringing iconic dishes from over the years to life. From fond memories of chocolate concrete and pink custard to somewhat less fond memories of boiled cabbage, and of course who can forget the infamous turkey Twizzlers of the early 2000s.

We then worked alongside a team of designers to transform this information into a colourful backdrop and interactive table where food from each decade is brought to life. The Fake Food Workshop transformed one dish from each decade into a life-size realistic replica to transport exhibition visitors back to dining halls from the 1940’s up to the present day.

Celebrate International School Meals Day by planning a trip to the Food Museum to see the new School Dinners exhibit. The exhibit runs from the 2 April until February 2027. Come visit the new exhibit to explore school dinners past, present and future as memories and tastes of school food are brought to life.

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