Dining hall
Dining halls are often busy, noisy places and that general ambience affects both the uptake of school meals and pupils' experience of them. Calmer, more pleasant surroundings help to make eating a more enjoyable, social experience for all pupils and staff.
Major refurbishment or decorating obviously requires significant funds and planning and may not be within the reach of many schools. However, it would be important for teachers, catering staff, pupils and parents to have an input into any such major project initiated by the local authority to ensure it satisfied everyone's needs.
If the school has a pupil council or School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG), they can help to gather pupils', staff and parents' views of the current facilities and ideas for what kind of changes or improvements they would like to see.
There are many simpler, cost-effective ways of improving the atmosphere of dining halls that could have considerable input from pupils. Ideas for changes include:
- new menu boards with clear information and prices
- posters promoting healthy eating with pictures of fruit and vegetables
- bright murals with a food theme
- new tables and chairs
- background music.
Management
The management of the dining hall during meal times is equally important and there are various issues that deter pupils and staff from eating there, including:
- long queues
- less choice for those at the back of the queue
- lack of time
- not enough tables
- limited pay points.
There are steps that can be taken to help ease congestion and maximise time, for example:
- rotas for arrival times
- separate sittings
- more serving points
- extra tables
- more cash points
- pre-ordering meals
- special counter for pre-ordered collection
- extra food or sandwich stall elsewhere in the school.
Teachers joining pupils in the dining hall and appropriate supervision are also important factors to encourage children to eat there.
Tackling stigma
The perceived stigma of receiving free school meals is identified in Hungry for Success as something schools should tackle. It says schools should review their payment systems to ensure anonymity for those who qualify for free meals.
The introduction of swipe cards or smart cards that can be topped up with cash and used to buy food has been very successful in some areas. Hungry for Success recommends that local authorities introduce these cashless systems, particularly in secondary schools.
