The government is pledging more cash and extra resources for school meals, but denied it was jumping on the “Jamie Oliver bandwagon” as an election stunt.
Education secretary Ruth Kelly said she had started looking into the situation with school dinners from “day one” of the job, and she promised to provide cash for kitchens and enforce minimum nutritional standards.
The announcement, part of Labour’s “mini-manifesto” for children, followed the final broadcast of Oliver’s latest programme, “Jamie’s School Dinners”, which highlighted the poor condition of the school meal system.
So far, more than 170,000 people are reported to have signed a petition started by Oliver after he revealed that only 37p was being spent on providing a school dinner for each child in Greenwich.
Rival political groups have accused the government of a gimmicky election stunt, but Kelly said she had told civil servants that she wanted “to do something to raise the standards of school meals” on her first day in office.
She said the government would be announcing more money in the next few weeks to build and rebuild school kitchens and dining areas.
The money will come from a £9.4 billion fund for refurbishing and rebuilding primary schools, promised in last week’s budget.
Kelly also pledged to improve the quality of meals by funding a new School Meal Trust to spread best practice.
However, she ruled out extra money being transferred directly to schools for the food itself, saying it would conflict with government policy, which states schools should decide their own budgets.
Oliver, writing on his website this week, said: “If changes are made, it will only be months before British health, education and farming could be affected for the better. It could be one of the biggest revolutions that England has ever seen.”
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