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144 CHAPTER 6 ■ Increasing School Meal Uptake in a Deprived Region in England

Promotion
Communication between the catering services run by adjacent local authority
and head teachers was inconsistent and reported to be poor. Strategies were put
into place to improve communication.

Key Messages

Key messages were developed for each of the target audiences. The messages
were clear, simple, and consistent and tried to address the barriers that were
identified during the qualitative research.
The key messages that were communicated to head teachers were:
• A child who has a healthy meal is easier to teach and achieves more
academically.
• Head teachers have a right to be involved in their kitchen: their school,
their kitchen.
• Children can still eat their favorite foods (e.g., tomato ketchup and
Yorkshire puddings).
• With the catering manager, head teachers can develop bespoke menus for
their school so that the children can still eat the foods they like.

Messengers
The local area head teacher consortiums were vital in establishing the credibility
of messages, as were the local health nutritionists and the head teacher unions.
This local representation was supported by national evidence from the
Nutrition Foundation and School Food Trust reporting links between good
food and behavior.

Key Media Channels

To ensure effectiveness, the messages were conveyed through a variety of media
channels, including printed materials, events, and social networks.

Print Materials
Fact sheets, booklets, newsletters, and posters were designed to be displayed in
teachers’ staff rooms and on school notice boards.

Special Events
Leading-edge head teachers and the area caterers went to speak at established
head teacher consortium groups. These heads are respected and well networked.