As children return to the classroom this September, new research reveals how more than a century of school meals policy has shaped children's relationships with food, wellbeing, and belonging
The study marks 120 years since school meals were first introduced in Britain in 1906
More than 50 new oral history interviews were collected from caterers, parents, teachers, dinner ladies and farmers across the UK
Researchers found that stigma associated with free school meals, from hidden meal tickets to children going without food, can affect people's attitudes to food and eating decades later
The project recommends universal school meal provision as the strongest way to remove stigma and treat school food as essential social infrastructure
Findings from The School Meals Service: Past, Present - and Future? mark 120 years since school meals were first introduced in Britain in 1906.
Researchers spend two years examining more than a century of school food provision during the project which is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, UCL and the University of Wolverhampton, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Co-led by Dr Heather Ellis, Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, the research combined archival study, oral histories and ethnographic observation in schools across England, Scotland and Wales. At Sheffield, Dr Ellis led the collection of more than 50 new interviews with people involved in school meals, from caterers and catering managers to parents, teachers, dinner ladies and farmers, alongside analysis of existing oral history collections.
The research found that experiences of school meals can stay with people well into adulthood, shaping how they relate to food, eating and their own sense of wellbeing many decades on. For some, school dinners represented stability and care, particularly when circumstances at home were difficult. For others, especially children receiving free school meals in the 1960s and 1970s, or those with sensory or neurodivergent needs, the school dining room was a source of exclusion and shame.
One contributor described being bullied after his family began relying on free school meals while his father was unemployed, and recalled going to lengths to conceal his circumstances from other children. His account has since featured in a touring exhibition on school dinners at the House of Commons.
Dr Heather Ellis, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, said: "We found that experiences of school meals could shape people's attitudes towards food, eating habits and weight management, even 40 or 60 years later.
"We need to reconceptualise school meals as social infrastructure, like trains and roads. It is something that sustains us. It's not just food."
Since means-tested free school meals were introduced in 1906, they have often carried stigma, with the research uncovering how children hid meal tickets or went without food rather than risk being identified as poor. While the shift to cashless payment systems has reduced some of the visible markers of who receives free meals, the research suggests the underlying stigma has not gone away.
Drawing on more than 100 years of evidence, the research team argues that universal provision - giving every child access to a free school meal regardless of family income - offers the strongest way to remove that stigma, not only for economic reasons but because of the shared experience it creates among pupils.
The project's findings have already fed into national conversations about school food, including the Government's recent review of school food standards, the first of its kind in more than a decade, and have informed the work of the School Food Alliance on the continuing stigma faced by children on free school meals.
Beyond policy, the research has reached the public through a partnership with the Food Museum in Stowmarket, which opened a two-year exhibition on the history of school dinners in 2025 with the SMS project as its official academic partner. The exhibition, which runs until September 2027, draws on the project's oral histories and archival material, and earlier this year won Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year at the Museums and Heritage Awards and the Food on Display Award at the British Library Food Season Awards.
Dr Ellis said the project's ambition is to see children's lived experience and long-term historical evidence given greater weight in future policy decisions, and to encourage a shift in how school meals themselves are understood.
