Is there a free lunch? moral, nutritional and legal aspects of school dinners

The article assesses the development of school dinners and, in particular, the free school programmes in the UK and Israel. The article shows how neoliberal aims for the programmes affected their design and implementation. The meals were seen as a means to an end - facilitating the long work day for parents, and at most - the residual aim of ensuring that pupils do not go hungry, and become disruptive in class.

Employing institutional, legal and normative analysis, the paper highlights how both the articulation of the aim and the manner of implementation affect the potential for true change. Thus, a conscious decision to focus on narrow aims – relieving immediate harm to underprivileged groups – will result in a very different programme to that which has in mind the cohort as a whole and considers the broader implications of nutrition.

Whilst the framers of the Israeli programme viewed it as a means to an end – facilitating a long school day for impoverished communities who suffer from nutritional insecurity - the UK programme underwent a significant change in 2014, from a nutritional and a value-oriented perspective. It offer signs for hope, with a holistic vision that concerns the food itself (not only as a means to an end), in addition to workers’ rights, community engagement and environmental concerns.