Control, resistance and the senses: neurodivergent perspectives of the UK school meals service, a case study

The UK school meals service has a distinctive history shaped by early welfare policies, austerity measures, and the introduction of universal free school meals, making it a useful case study for examining how state interventions and socio-economic factors impact disabled and neurodivergent individuals and their families. Understanding these experiences can provide valuable insights into how national policies and cultural contexts influence inclusivity and how neurodivergent students can be better supported both in the telling of their stories and in school settings. In this article, we strive to bring the perspectives of disabled adults who experienced the UK meals service growing up into focus. By doing so, we also endeavor to bridge the gap between the history of school meals and dining spaces and the history of education, which have often been treated separately. Children’s experience of school meals, in particular, disabled children’s experience, is largely absent from the history of education, yet, as we argue here, children’s experiences of food in school are integral to an understanding of the workings of pedagogy and education policy.