Projects

Exploring Planet Friendly school food meus

In partnership with Newcastle City Council

Project summary

There are around 4.7 million primary school pupils in England, of which 24% are eligible for free school meals (FSM).

England primary school meals produce around  578.1 million kgCO₂ equivalent a year.

Given its reach and scale, transforming the school food system has significant potential to shape children’s diets and, therefore, reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Newcastle primary schools will provide ‘Planet Friendly’ menus one day a week from the 2024-25 school year.

Our project will lay the groundwork to design a future study looking at the delivery and impact of Planet Friendly menus.

Summary of work

• We will speak with Newcastle school food suppliers and caterers, and head teachers and chefs at three Newcastle primary schools, to understand the barriers to delivering Planet Friendly menus and how these can be managed.
• We will also identify what outcomes they think are important to assess in a future study.
• We will speak to pupils, parents, and teachers at the three schools to understand what they think of Planet Friendly menus, and how the menus shape what pupils eat.
• We will count how many pupils choose Planet Friendly meals at three timepoints.
• We will use our findings to design a future study in more schools.

Find out more

Lead researcher: Dr Mackenzie Fong, ARC NENC Research Fellow, Prevention, Early Intervention and Behaviour Change.

Email: [email protected]