Encouraging primary school children to take school lunches instead of packed lunches can be a struggle, regardless of whether they’re meals are free or not. You need to win over both the parent and the child.
Here are some creative ideas to encourage school meal uptake.
Themed lunches
Offer lunches that celebrate different cultures. Use themed decorations, music, and educational titbits about the ingredients.
Create character-based menus: serve food inspired by popular children’s characters or movies, like a “Superhero Salad” or “Princess Pasta.”
Interactive menus
Give pupils a say. Ask them to vote on what they would like to see on the menu for a specific day.
Alternatively, offer customisable options where pupils can mix and match items to create their own meal, for example different pizza toppings.
Educational engagement
Launch a “Healthy Eating Challenge” where pupils earn points or stickers for trying different fruits, vegetables, and balanced meals. Rewarding participation with small prizes or certificates.
Host a live or recorded cooking demonstration where the school chef shows how meals are prepared, focusing on the fun aspects of cooking and nutrition.
Incentive programmes
Give pupils a loyalty card where they get a stamp each time they choose a school lunch. After a certain number of stamps, they can earn a reward.
Run a competition between classes. The class with the most pupils choosing a healthy school meal option wins a special class treat.
Storytelling
Create a school lunch mascot with accompanying story for kids to follow. Add facts about the ingredients, making school lunch part of the adventure. You could even run a competition to design your mascot.
Align your lunches with monthly themes or events, such as “Harvest Festival” in October, “Chinese New Year” in January, or a “Rainbow Food Week” where each day’s menu features foods of different colours.
Parent tasting event
Invite your parents into school for a taste-test. Showcase the quality and variety of school lunches you offer. This will hopefully dispel any preconceived opinions they may have from their own school days.
Provide clear information to parents about the nutritional benefits of school lunches compared to typical packed lunches, you may surprise them!
Special events
Involve pupils in planning or even incorporate school-grown ingredients into their school lunch.
Set up a DIY station for items like tacos, sandwiches, or salads. This allows pupils to personalise their meals with ingredients they like.
Promotion tips to increase school meal uptake
Don’t underestimate the term “we eat with our eyes”, meal images in SCO need to be tempting. Make the food look as appealing as possible, with bright colours, fun shapes, and creative plating.
Use posters, social media, and articles in your school newsletter to remind parents how nutritional school lunches are. Dispel any prejudice they may hold from personal experience.
In conclusion, these ideas will hopefully help you to make school lunches more appealing and increase school meal uptake. Remember to integrate an educational aspect. Help children and their parents to understand the importance of healthy eating and in turn, this will hopefully encourage more school meal uptake.
More information
Have you seen our removing barriers to increase uptake of free school meals post?
