20% plunge in children eating school dinners

The education minister today admitted the Jamie Oliver-inspired drive for healthier meals had caused a drop in the number of children having school dinners.

Kevin Brennan was speaking after figures showed almost 500,000 children had stopped having school meals since healthy food options were brought in two years ago. He said the decline was "not unexpected".

The Government is spending more than £280 million to get more children to have school meals, and wants take-up to rise by 10 per cent by 2009.

But figures unearthed by the Lib Dems reveal that almost 250,000 school meals were served in secondary schools last year, a drop of nearly 20 per cent on two years ago. In primaries, demand for school meals has fallen by 10 per cent since 2005.

Lib- Dem educat ion spokesman David Laws said: " Without action, this Government could preside over the end of the school meals service as we know it."