22 January 2026
Powerful film with Emma Thompson calls for urgent improvement in school food standards
A powerful film featuring young food campaigners and actor Emma Thompson is calling for urgent action to improve school food in 2026.
The Lunch They Deserve seeks to focus the nation on the need for better standards given 4.5 million children in the UK are growing up in poverty and for many of them a healthy diet is unaffordable.
School meals have the potential to ensure these young people have access to a nutritious, hot meal that will help to keep them healthy.
The film narrated by actor Dame Emma Thompson
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."
Chef and school food champion Jamie Oliver, who is also supporting the campaign, 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."
The film, created by multi-Bafta winning animators The Tin Bear Project, features the voices of four young people from across the UK with lived experience of food insecurity, including Nausheen, 15, from Northern Ireland; 15-year-old Rylee from Somerset; Emmanuela, 17, from London; and Adama, 17, from Newcastle.
Food Ambassador Rylee said: "As a young person in an all boys secondary 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."
Food Ambassador Emmanuela 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."
Food Ambassador Nausheen said: "Every child deserves access to healthy food and the necessities that help them reach their full potential. That’s why I’m committed to taking action to improve food standards for all children."
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, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly affirmed his commitment to quality school food at an event at Number 10 Downing Street in November.
Food Foundation Executive Director Anna Taylor 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 which aren’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've seen 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.”
- The film has been funded by Trust for London and The National Lottery Community Fund.
