MORE children in Worcestershire are being encouraged to try school dinners.

The county council hopes to get more pupils eating hot healthy lunches rather than bringing in their own food.

A recent survey of the county’s schools revealed that at primary level the average uptake of school meals was 38 per cent in Worcestershire compared with a national average of 43.6 per cent. At high school level, the average take up was 29 per cent compared with 37.7 per cent.

However, only 54 of the county’s 245 schools (22 per cent) responded to the survey, and Worcestershire County Council admits it does not keep records of how many children buy school meals.

Julia Marshall, Worcestershire County Council’s school catering officer, said: “School food has been transformed over the last three years.

“Catering companies and schools have enthusiastically adopted the food-based standards that have defined the types of food that children and young people should be offered in a school lunch and their frequency as well as standards which set out the proportion of nutrients that children and young people should receive from their school lunches.”

The average cost of school meals in Worcestershire is £1.80 per child.

The number of children eligible for free school meals in Worcestershire was 6,673 between January 2007 and January 2008.

Of those, 5,456 pupils took advantage but 1,217 eligible children went without meals.

Shire Services was recently given the Soil Association’s Food For Life Silver Catering Mark for using seasonal, local and organic ingredients.

The association said Worcestershire’s meals were some of the best examples of sourcing good, fresh, local produce for the public sector and that other councils would do well to follow suit.

Three local schools, Bishop Perowne CE College in Worcester, Franche Community Primary in Kidderminster and Stourport High School, have been named as flagship Soil Association Food for Life schools.

As well as Shire Services, there are other providers delivering hot meals to Worcestershire schools, including Alliance in Partnership, Class Catering and several schools that provide an in-house catering service.

Alliance in Partnership is delivering a programme where larger high/primary schools allow use of their kitchen facilities so hot meals can be delivered to neighbouring smaller schools that are without such facilities.

Class Catering’s menus were analysed by Trading Standards, which said “the overall quality of the food served was excellent”.

Some children might be eligible for free school meals and further information is available from the free school meals team on 01905 766182. Further information about all school meals is available at worcestershire.gov.uk/healthyschools or by calling the school catering team on 01905 766397.