Who is feeding our children? A Yorkshire based overview of primary school food provision

Research highlights school meals as a powerful mechanism to impact population health. As 4.7 million English primary school children consume around 30.0% of their daily food at school, the school lunch caterer can influence child dietary health. Despite this, and considerable public sector spend on school food, no public record of school food provision exists. This study aimed to understand who provides school food and whether school characteristics differed by provider type. School food provision in 1,771 state funded Yorkshire primary schools was mapped by provider and provider type, along with key school characteristics (school size, geography, deprivation, cultural diversity and school type). Descriptive statistics and ANOVA analysed differences in characteristics between provider types. Three provider types were identified; local government caterer, commercial caterer, and in-house caterer. School size varied widely from 5 to 789 children and 21.0% of schools had fewer than 150 pupils necessary for meal provision to financially breakeven. Local government caterers served most schools (49.3%), with smaller (F3-479 = 7.132, P < 0.001), less deprived (F3-470 = 8.813, P < 0.001) schools, and a higher rural proportion, than other catering types. Commercial caterers served 30.2% of schools, with the largest (F3-479 = 7.132, P < 0.001), and proportionally more urban, schools. In-house catering was less prevalent at 8.9%. Data were unavailable for 11.6% of schools. The data demonstrated fragmentation and complexity of school food provision which may hinder effective policy and practice. Significant differences in school characteristics by provider type, facilitating unequal profitability potential and issues with financial viability, likely affect school food quality.