Free school meals in Wales 'should be healthier'

Free school meals in Wales should be "more cost effective, healthier, and more climate friendly", a leading academic has said.

Prof Kevin Morgan, from Cardiff University's school of geography, also said Wales was a "long way off" being able to source entirely local food in schools.

All primary school children are eligible for free school meals in Wales. Families of older children can also apply for free school meals, with eligibility based on household income.

The Welsh government said it was working closely with councils to offer "the best possible food in schools".

Prof Morgan, who has previously written a book about food in schools, hospitals and prisons, said the quality of meals being provided in Wales needed to be raised.

"We are the first and only UK nation to have implemented free school meals in all primary schools. Wales has won international plaudits for doing so – but we need to raise the quality of that food," he told Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.

"There is no good universalising poor quality food."

Prof Morgan also expressed concern about the ability to source "local food".

"If we wanted to source entirely local food in schools tomorrow, it couldn't be done, not least because our horticulture sector in Wales is so under-developed," he added.

"That is one of the great opportunities before us now, as we are boosting the demand side of things.

"You need to use that power of purchase, procurement budgets, to build up that source of supply."

Prof Morgan was speaking almost a decade since the creation of the Future Generations Act, which placed a legal duty on public bodies to take the needs of future generations into account.

It was introduced by the then-National Assembly for Wales in April 2015 and hailed as ground-breaking by the United Nations.

"Free school meals... is the best example of a tangible expression of the Future Generations Act," said Prof Morgan.

He said he believed it was a "wonderful and laudable piece of legislation", but said it suffered from "everything that devolution has suffered from in Wales" which he called "the gap between aspiration and delivery".

"We are asking local authorities and public bodies to step up to this enormous challenge, after almost twenty years of austerity budgets, where their capacity has been hollowed out," he said.

The Welsh government said: "We want the best school food offer in the UK to give our children the healthiest start to life. Our roll out of free school meals for all primary school learners means every child is offered a nutritious meal.

"We are working closely with our local authorities to offer the best possible food in schools. Over the next year we are updating and improving our healthy eating regulations."