Food for thought: A survey of teachers’ views on school meals

Currently in England, 1.2 million schoolage children in poverty are not getting free school meals – 700,000 of them are not even entitled to this key support. The Children’s Society’s Fair and Square campaign is calling for all children in poverty to receive free school meals

As part of this campaign, we worked with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to survey 570 teachers2 about their views on food in schools covering issues of free school meals, the levels of hunger in schools and the quality of school food. We also undertook a nationally representative poll of teachers and spoke directly to some young people3 who are entitled to free school meals.