City of York Council's efforts to promote the meals service available at schools across the city has paid off, with take-up rising from an all-time low of 30 per cent in 2005 to 35.6 per cent.

This increase has been achieved through a range of promotional activity, including taster sessions for parents. Some schools used government funding known as the targeted school meals grant on projects that boosted the take-up rate. One notable example is St. Mary's Primary School at Askham Richard, where take-up has risen from 57.3 per cent last spring to a massive 74.7 per cent this year. The school has been actively championing healthy eating and even gave its pupils free school meals for a week so that children who had never tried them could sample the choices on offer.

The drive to promote school meals as a healthy option follows the introduction, last September, of the government's new food-based standards in schools across the country. These changes were designed to ensure that all school children receive a balanced and nutritious diet.

In addition to this, the School Food Trust was set up to ensure the standards are met by schools, and that take-up of new and improved meals is maintained and increased.  Its role is to support schools, local authorities and community groups involved in providing and promoting good quality healthy food in schools. The School Food Trust has recently carried out a national awareness-raising and promotional campaign, which supports the activity happening at a local level.

The council's client catering officer, Barbara Kistasamy, said: "It is really pleasing to see that the take-up of school meals is steadily increasing across the board following the introduction of the new government standards. We are also delighted with the effort that individual schools have made to boost their take-up, by giving children and parents more opportunity to try school meals for themselves and generally promoting them as a health eating option."