Today, on National School Meals Day, KATE THOMPSON investigates the high-profile subject of school lunches, and the price paid for them...

WHEN Lizzie Vann MBE became a governor at a Hampshire primary school, she immediately wanted to know what the children were being fed.

The creator of a multi-million-pound business creating organic children's food, Lizzie, 45, knows the importance of good food for growing bodies and she was determined the youngsters should have a nutritious diet.

Her investigations led to the publication of the Food for Life report that revealed the average spent on the food for a child's lunch nationally is 35 pence per day - while prisoners' lunches cost 60 pence.

"It's a very small amount of money and if you ask any parent what sort of meal they could prepare for 35 pence, they would tell you not a lot," said Lizzie.

"Ideally we would like to see the amount spent on meals doubled."

At Sopley Primary School, where Lizzie had joined the board, uptake of meals among the 84 pupils was falling as both parents and pupils became less satisfied with what was on offer.

Head teacher Jackie Groves, together with the school governors, asked both parents and pupils what they would like to see on the menu.

It became clear they wanted more nutritious food and they were willing to change their eating habits.

"We called in Amanda Frost, the head of Hampshire County Council's catering service, and told her we would like to see more fresh food on the menu and more variety.

"Rather than a lot of processed food, we said we would like to work with local farmers and producers," explained Lizzie.

Sopley was chosen as an experiment to see if using fresher, local and even organic ingredients could be used for the children's meals.

At the moment, the council's catering operation is able to keep costs down through economies of scale, so Lizzie had to prove that meals could be produced at not much more than the current cost of 42 pence per meal in Hampshire.

The summer term menu was put together through a joint effort by the catering manager Debbie Drake, the head teacher and Lizzie, and took into account the views of parents and pupils.

Owl's Barn, a local organic livestock farm, supplied organic beef mince and organic joints of beef and lamb for the fortnightly roast dinner day.

They are also starting to work with Warborne Farm, a local organic vegetable grower.

"The benefits have been many. The pupils are enjoying their food more and uptake has risen from 45 per cent to 65-70 per cent. Parents are happier with our choices and teachers eat with the children more - especially on roast day.

"The cost of ingredients has gone up nine pence and it does take more time, but we have more children eating the meals now. In larger schools those extra costs could be better absorbed," Lizzie said.

Sopley's three-week menu provides the average child with at least 150g or three portions of fruit or vegetables a day.

And the following targets have been met or surpassed:

They wanted 75 per cent of menu items to be unprocessed - in fact, 90 per cent was reached.

Work is in progress on ensuring 30 per cent of the food is organic.

They wanted 50 per cent of the food to be local and work is in progress.

The menu meets the criteria set by the Caroline Walker Trust Nutritional Guidelines.

"We are really pleased with the uptake and the quality of the food that is being produced," said Lizzie. "We haven't finished yet at Sopley - there is still a fair way to go but we have made a difference already."

Following on the success of the Sopley experiment, Amanda Frost is now looking at rolling the programme out to other schools in the county.

The Food For Life pack is available from the Soil Association on 0117 914 2446, and costs £5.

WORKING TO PROVIDE A BALANCED DIET:

EVERY day, Amanda Frost ensures 40,000 meals are prepared for Hampshire's hungry school children.

She is in charge of the county's catering service. Prior to coming to Hampshire, she worked in Bradford where menus had to be created that took into account the large multi-cultural school population.

She is all in favour of using more fresh produce instead of processed goods - and is happy to investigate using organic fare where possible.

On the back of the Sopley experiment, she is preparing to try the same with a number of other schools from January onwards.

But she has to ensure the sums add up.

"There are lots of pluses with what has happened at Sopley and, as an organisation, we are taking on a lot of the principles. But if we rolled it out across Hampshire, we would go bankrupt tomorrow.

"So we have to look at ways to make this more affordable," she said.

Amanda has been working to remove processed food from school menus and to eradicate harmful E numbers.

Chicken nuggets - the staple of many children's dinner plates - are still on the menu in Hampshire but Amanda ensures they are made with breast meat and with no additives.

"We have also just introduced chicken breast on its own and that is becoming more popular," said Amanda.

Wholemeal flour is used to make the home-made pizza bases and the toppings are created with fresh ingredients - and schools make their own bread.

In Hampshire it costs £1.45 for a two-course meal - and 42 pence of that covers the cost of the food. The rest of the money pays for staffing and other overheads.

"If the government came along and said let's divert money into school meals, it would make a massive difference," said Amanda.

The Scottish parliament has poured more than £50m into children's meals to ensure they have the extra vegetables and protein necessary to improve their diet.