Kids living in the most deprived areas of the UK are growing up shorter than their peers, and more than a third are overweight or obese by the age of 11.
Two hard-to-swallow facts relayed in the opening of a new, powerful animated short film – The Lunch They Deserve (online) – from The Food Foundation.
“And you can’t blame genetics,” says the voiceover of 17-year-old Emmanuela. “It’s the bad-quality food we’re eating.”
And that’s not all. Poor diets are driving up young peoples risk of type 2 diabetes, and “we’re losing teeth to tooth decay” says fellow teen Rylee.
School meals should be the saviour of this shocking situation. Indeed, free school meals are being rolled out to more vulnerable children, and the government has affirmed its commitment to quality school food.
But the government doesn’t monitor what’s happening in the school food system, which, says the campaign’s celebrity ambassador and film’s narrator Emma Thompson, “means no one is officially checking the quality of the meals served”.
It’s here the short makes its clear call to action. As Food Foundation executive director Anna Taylor explains in the campaign material: “There are lots of wonderful examples of schools delivering fantastic food to children – that experience needs to be less of a postcode lottery and instead something which all children can benefit from.”
The film is beautifully animated by Bafta-winning studio The Tin Bear Project, and does an exceptional job of getting across a lot of information in a devastatingly clear and concise way.
The school canteen provides “the golden opportunity for society to step up”, Thompson notes. Will it?
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