Page 154 - Social Marketing for Public Health Global Trends and Success Stories

57977_CH06_final.qxd:Cheng 11/5/09 4:39 PM Page 127

6

C H APT E R

Increasing School

Meal Uptake in a

Deprived Region

in England

Overcoming the Barriers

Rowena Merritt, Aiden Truss, Lucy Reynolds, and Emma Heesom

School meals in primary schools make a vital contribution to the dietary intake
of schoolchildren in England (Nelson et al., 2005). However, the number of
school meals purchased has fallen in 75% of schools (Ofsted , 2007). The sub-
1
stantial decline began after changes were rapidly made to school meals, in a
bid to make them more nutritionally balanced. While the reasons for the decline
are complex, the lack of consultation with pupils and parents and the poor
promotion of new menus were all singled out as contributing factors to the fall.
This chapter discusses a social marketing intervention developed to arrest and

1 Ofsted—the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills—is the official body for
inspecting schools in England.