a day ago
Feeding every child at school isn't impossible, we do it every single day in Sweden
The UK government announced recently it will extend free school meals to include the children of all families who claim universal credit.
It will save parents of 500,000 children around £500 every year and, the government says, lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty.
But some think the government should go even further. The National Education Union's 'Free School Meals For All' campaign points out that Wales and London already provide free food to all primary school children while Scotland has rolled it out for pupils up to age 10.
However, none of these places has gone as far as Sweden. For the past three decades, the Scandinavian country has given every school student up to the age of 16 the right to a free lunch and snack as part of its world-renowned approach - with remarkable results that has seen children actually grow taller as a result.
Yahoo News spoke with Yvonne Andersson, a retired headteacher who worked for 43 years in the Swedish school system, to get a first-hand take on the benefits of the country's approach.
Andersson worked as a teacher, deputy principal, and then principal in Veberöd, a small town of 6,000 people which is part of the Lund municipality in southern Sweden, taking charge of the local pre-schools and primary schools.
She says Sweden's free school meals system gets so much international attention that officials and educators from countries including Tanzania and England have visited to see mealtimes in action.
Andersson is a firm proponent of the country's free school meals system — and thinks other countries could learn from Sweden's example.
"Not many people have the system that we have in Sweden," Andersson said. "Many educators who have visited our school have been deeply impressed. After visiting many other schools around the world myself and looking at their school meals, I understand - our system is incomparable."
Origins of Sweden's free school meals system can be traced back to the 19th century when children living in poverty in certain areas received a free school meal of porridge and milk.
By the late 1930s, around 13% of children had access to a free school meal as the state began to provide subsidies. From 1997, this was extended and all Swedish municipalities were obliged by law to serve free school meals to every pupil in compulsory school from the ages of six to 15 or 16.
"I was born in 1946. In Malmö, where I was born, free school meals were introduced after the war. So I have always eaten free hot food for lunch at school. For me, it has always been so natural that we didn't think about it," Andersson said.
In Andersson's former schools, a free breakfast is served at 7am to preschool children and those who go to after-school care centres.
"Each class goes with its class teacher to the dining room and stands in line for the buffet," Andersson says. "They also get fika — a snack and drink break — at 2pm every day.
And even when they're taking a break, they are still learning.
"Their teachers sit at the tables and talk to them and teach them," Andersson said. "All schools must have restaurants for the students and staff. The staff who eat with the children 'eat educationally' and do not have to pay.
'The after-school care centre children eat in the dining room, and the others in their year groups.'
In Andersson's experience, a hot lunch is served at 11am for the youngest children. Then it's the turn of middle school students, and finally the older ones from high school.
The buffet approach means pupils have at least four options.
"There are two dishes to choose from, one is vegetarian. There is also a special diet for those who do not eat regular food - for example if you are a coeliac or vegan or have a certificate that you cannot eat the food that is served."
Any food that is spared doesn't go to waste.
"At my school, empty food is served to the village pensioners who are on a tight budget," Andersson said. "They pay 90 krona now (around £6.90 a portion), up from - 70:- (£5.38) a month ago."
Petter Lundborg, a professor at the Department of Economics at Lund University, has studied the benefits of free school meals and found that free access in primary school had long-term benefits.
Not only did children grow taller, they were more likely to attend university, and also earned more over the course of their lives.
In addition, pupils who received school meals during the entire nine years of compulsory school became almost 1cm taller and went to university more often compared with pupils without access to the program.
'Children exposed to the reform earned about 3% more over their lifetime,' Lundborg told Yahoo News.
'The effects were strongest among children from lower-income households, who saw gains of around 6%. We also saw small but meaningful increases in height and educational attainment.
'These results suggest that better nutrition in childhood can support both physical development and academic success, which over time translates into better economic outcomes,' he added.
Lundborg also believes that by making meals available to all pupils, it has benefitted lower-income pupils even more.
'One of our most striking findings is that universal access matters. While children from poor backgrounds gained the most, meaning that economic inequality was reduced to some extent, all children benefitted to some extent.
'By making it universal, the school lunch reform raised the floor for everyone and did not involve any stigma,' he added.
However, the researchers found no long-term effects on mortality, morbidity or sick leave, nor did it lead to any changes in school attendance, which was high even before school meals were introduced.
The program did not affect body size, implying that schools did not provide an unhealthy excess of calories.
Public school funding comes out of Sweden's local tax revenue, which varies from municipality to municipality just like it does in the UK's local authority system.
While the Swedish national government sets regulations — such as the requirement that school lunches must be nutritious and free of charge for all students — funding does not come directly from the central government but from municipal budgets.
"In Lund we pay 21.24 kronor (£1.63) to the municipality for every 100 kronor (£7.68) earned," Andersson explained. "In regional tax we pay 32.42 kronor (£2.50).
"The school money is distributed to all children in the municipality, and differs slightly depending on the school's size."
Nonetheless, Andersson says the system works because it "makes no difference between the poor and rich."
"It has also meant that all parents who wish can work. Even though we were well off and my mother was a housewife at the time, it has also benefited me. Everyone is equal and has the same rights and obligations. It's very positive that everyone can eat their fill."
For some pupils, the scheme can also extend to cover their breakfast too.
Over her decades years teaching, Andersson is pleased that she witnessed the benefits of the system first-hand.
She said: "I have even forced a family with three children to put them in after-school care when their parents could not cope with them and did not get any food at home in the morning.
"The mother was sleeping and the children had to go to school hungry. Now they could have a hearty breakfast in the morning, a hot meal for lunch and an afternoon snack before going home from after-school care in the afternoons. I have never seen three such small children eat so much.
"I am only positive about our system. It benefits everyone — even the spoiled children who venture out at lunch..." she added.
