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Young food campaigners and Emma Thompson call for urgent action to improve school food in 2026
The Food Foundation has launched a powerful animated campaign film, narrated by Dame Emma Thompson and four young people from across the UK who have lived experience of food insecurity.
The Lunch They Deserve aims to draw national attention to the urgent need for improved school food standards. With 4.5 million children currently growing up in poverty in the UK, a healthy diet is unaffordable for many families. School meals have the power to change this, providing children with access to a nutritious, hot meal that supports their health and wellbeing.
The film was created by multi-BAFTA-winning animators The Tin Bear Project and funded by Trust for London and The National Lottery Community Fund.
Dame Emma Thompson, Actor and Food Foundation Celebrity Ambassador said, “School lunchtime is the golden opportunity for society to step up, to serve great food to our young people and by doing so support families, the NHS and our communities. Every child has the right to healthy food. Let’s get it right in all our schools. Let’s give all our kids the lunch they deserve so that they can thrive.”
Jamie Oliver, Chef and School Food Campaigner said, “We’ve had the evidence for years - good school food transforms children’s health, learning,attendance and wellbeing. Yet we still have a system where some children eat well at school and others don’t. That’s outrageous. School meals are the UK’s biggest and most important restaurant chain, and it’s failing too many of its customers. It’s long past time for government to properly update 20-year-old standards and actually enforce them.”
Last year the government announced that from September 2026 the provision of Free School Meals will be extended to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit. The government also pledged to improve school food standards, with Keir Starmer again publicly affirming his commitment to quality school food at an event at Number 10 Downing Street in November.
The announcement of the expansion of Free School Meals was celebrated by Emma Thompson and the Young Food Ambassadors who campaigned side by side on this issue for a number of years. They are now joining The Food Foundation’s call for further bold action from government that will create a turning point in school food standards, and consequently in child health, in 2026 alongside the expansion of free school meals.
The Young Food Ambassadors are a diverse group of young activists from around the UK, campaigning both in their own communities and on a national level for the right of all people to be able to access healthy and affordable food. Many have lived or living experience of food insecurity. In ‘The Lunch They Deserve’, Emma Thompson narrates alongside Nausheen, 15, from Northern Ireland; Rylee, 15, from Somerset; Emmanuela, 17, from London; and Adama, 17, from Newcastle.
Mandatory school food standards do currently exist, but they do not take into account recentnutritional recommendations. Another key problem is that compliance with the standards is notmonitored, so no one is checking the food schools are providing to our children.
Free School Meals are one of the most powerful tools available to protect children from food insecurity, give some relief to families that are struggling with the rising cost of food, and address health inequalities across the UK. As Free School Meals are rolled out to more vulnerable children, standards must also be updated and properly monitored to improve child health and educational outcomes.
Children from the lowest income households suffer the most from diet related ill health, and are on average shorter. We know that currently in the UK fewer than 10% of teenagers eat enough fruit and vegetables, over a third of children are living with overweight or obesity by the age of 11 and young people’s risk of type 2 diabetes has increased by 22% in the last five years. The video makes the point that this is very much a disease of modern times created by the food we are giving to our children. Tooth decay, linked to sugar consumption, also stands as theleading cause of hospital admissions for children.
Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation, said, “September 2026 is a huge opportunity to mark a step change in both access to free school meals and the quality of the meals served. Monitoring has to go hand in hand with new standards so that schools whicharen’t meeting standards can be given adequate support to improve. 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. We’veseen clear evidence that when school food standards have been updated in the past, the uptake of school meals has increased steadily over the following years. We now have the opportunity to make sure this goes further so that every child can enjoy a nutritious meal at lunchtime.”
Naomi Duncan, CEO Chefs in Schools, said, "The Prime Minister’s recent commitment to ensuring children are not just fed in school, but fed well, matters. At Chefs in Schools, we see daily the impact that high-quality school food has on children and young people. As the scale of food-related ill health becomes clearer, ambition must be matched by action. Schools are a critical intervention point, but only if high standards for chefs and caterers are applied consistently and enforced properly."
Nausheen, Young Food Ambassador from Northern Ireland said, “Every child deserves access to healthy food and the necessities that help them reach their full potential. That’s whyI’m committed to taking action to improve food standards for all children.”
Rylee, Young Food Ambassador from Somerset said, “As a young person in an all boyssecondary school, I feel it's very important that we are able to eat healthy and nutritious meals that will support our growth and our academic achievements, especially in these last two years of GCSE exam preparation. The current offer is not sufficient and does not promote a healthy or active lifestyle.”
Emmanuela, 17, Young Food Ambassador from London said, “School food standards matter because what you feed students directly shapes their ability to focus, emotionally regulate, and actually learn. Low-quality, nutritionally poor meals hit disadvantaged students hardest because they’re often the only reliable meal of the day; when that food is inadequate, it deepens existing inequalities in wellbeing and attainment. If we’re serious about equity in education, improving school food is foundational.”
Ceri Barnes, The Tin Bear Project, said, "Both myself and Oli Smyth are parents as well as animation creators and the chance to use our craft of hand drawn 2D storytelling to get a hugely important message out as widely as possible was irresistible. Ultra Processed Food is everywhere and has snuck in to our kids schools masquerading as ‘nutrition’, which could not be further from the truth, nor could it be more important that our children are properly nourished. Animation is one of the greatest communication tools humans have and we are delighted that the Food Foundation chose to wield it with us.”
“Embedded in the project from the start we found the young ambassadors to be laser-focussed on improving standards with a clarity of purpose that is inspirational. We hope this film will inform those who don’t know, and galvanise those who should know better to better take care of our children’s health and futures.”