We designed and conducted three different, age-appropriate activities. Watch this space, we’ll share the progress of our mission to make Free School Meals as desirable and accessible as possible. We are combining the findings from the pupils, staff, and stakeholder research with data analysis and service mapping to design a series of interventions that help tackle the barriers we identify to free school meals. If you present a child with a piece of fruit and a piece of cake - cake wins! What’s next? They encouraged each other to taste the fruits, and eagerly discussed their favourites.Ĭhildren said they were usually happy to eat fruit as a snack, but not with meals. The pupils emptied the bowls and enjoyed trying new fruits - many had never had kiwi or plum before. That’s a long time to go without food.įinally, we brought along a selection of fruit to the lessons to test whether what we had heard about young people not wanting to eat fruit was accurate. If you don’t like what you’ve chosen (and you subsequently don’t eat it), you then won’t eat again till dinner time. However, making a ‘safe’ choice isn’t just about familiarity – it’s about reducing risk. Fish and chips is still as popular as it was when I was a kid!

When given the choice of a burger (familiar) or an enchilada (a mystery), they chose the former. Pupils made it very clear they do not like crusts (nothing new there) and that they tend to stick with what they know. We will use their artwork to design a new look for the school meal menus, giving pupils ownership by allowing them to contribute to the design. The activity helped foster a conversation around the menu. P1 to P2 pupils drew their school meals from the previous week. The “Dear People In Power” booklet shares their messages through drawings, letters and memes. The lessons produced outputs that encourage young people to speak about school meals and the routines surrounding these. To understand children’s experiences around school meals, we designed and conducted lessons with P1 to P7 pupils.

Old Snook free