More than two decades after chef Jamie Oliver campaigned for hot, healthy school meals – famously going to war with Bernard Matthews over its 34 per cent meat Turkey Twizzlers, it seems many of the latest generation of pupils in the UK and Ireland are still being failed on lunchtime meals.
Earlier this month, an Irish food author left parents horrified after publishing a catalogue of images showing school meals that are being served up to pupils in 2026.
Sophie Morris has been dubbed ‘Ireland’s Jamie Oliver’ for highlighting the deeply unappetising – and nutritionally bereft – meals being given to young people at lunchtime…with similar fare seemingly also still on the menu for British schoolchildren.
Amongst the 17 photos shared on Morris’ Instagram account – sent to her by parents and teachers – is a glutinous-looking pasta, a ‘curry wrap’ of spiced mashed potato stuffed into a white pitta and a ‘sweetcorn on pizza’ consisting of a mini disc of baked dough with congealed cheese, tomato sauce and sweetcorn resting on top of it.
Elsewhere, there’s processed meat – including sausages and burgers, white bread galore and lots of pasta, with no green vegetables featuring at all.
Last month in the UK, the charity Food Foundation launched a new campaign, including a video narrated by Emma Thompson, that targets the British Government over falling food standards for children, saying ‘too many [schools] are now serving food that is unhealthy and lacking in essential nutrition’.
Irish nutrition coach Sophie Morris shared a series of images showing what young people in the country are being served at schools
Majoring on beige food with zero green vegetables shown, the images paint a dismal image of nutrition in schools. While the UK is the biggest consumer of ultra processed foods in Europe, Ireland features in the top five according to data published in the British Medical Journal in 2024
And on social media, British parents and pupils have also shared photos and videos of sub-standard meals regularly doled out in the nation’s school canteens.
One UK pupil posted a covertly filmed clip from his school dining hall showing gravy that appeared particularly viscous, while another pupil responded with a photo of his own lunch, showing a white cardboard tray filled with roast potatoes, a piece of chicken and a stuffing ball – with zero vegetables in the dish.
The cost of school meals in the UK has also received criticism – a hot meal such as a beef ragout pasta costs around £2.70, while a chicken caesar salad bowl is around £3.00; a slice of pizza costs roughly £1.60.
Croissants and cookies, served to children for break time snacks at many secondary schools in the UK cost between around £1.20 and £1.70.
A mother based in South West London said she’d received a call from her daughter’s school saying her child had run out of dinner money despite, she says, £30 being added to her lunch account just days earlier.
Posting on TikTok, she said: ‘We need something to give. The current prices of secondary school lunches is criminal and will lead to the downfall of our children. Something needs to be done!’
Photos show carb-heavy dishes; the Food Foundation says while menus have improved at some schools, little progress has been made on improving nutrition at others
Parents and teachers sent ‘hundreds’ of photos to Irish food campaigner Morris, including a ‘chicken tender’, left. Right: A clip of gravy served to a UK school pupil in December that was shared on TikTok
In Ireland, nutrition coach Morris says the photographs show the ‘reality of what’s happening on the ground’ in schools across her home country, adding: ‘This is only a few of the hundreds of images I received in one day from parents/teachers.’
The post has evoked plenty of impassioned comments, including one that suggested catering companies serving schools in the Republic of Ireland should do better, saying: ‘Don’t know how the companies can get away with this! You wouldn’t give that to a dog!’
Another person shocked by the meals shown commented: ‘I struggle to comprehend how the kids in our society will ever learn to eat anything healthy when the examples they see are are of such horrifically poor standards.’
Statistics show that, behind the UK, Ireland is one of the biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods (UFPs) in Europe.
According to figures released in 2024 and published in the British Medical Journal, the UK is second only to the US when it comes to UFPs, with almost 60 per cent of an adult’s daily diet made up of additive-laden food.
Ireland, meanwhile, placed fifth in Europe for consumption of UFPs.
Last month, Dame Emma Thompson narrated the Food Foundation’s new video, targeting ‘unhealthy’ meals in UK schools.
The Love Actually star, 66, is heard criticising headteachers and the Government over the continued reliance of cheap, ultra-processed food in schools.
The footage, released at the end of January, calls on ministers to better ‘monitor’ school food to ensure it is nutritious.
Other dishes that featured in the 17-photo montage showed a sausage in a bun, and a less-than-appetising mini pizza. Right: A curry wrap appears to be carb-heavy
Hungry? Half a burger in a white bread roll with ketchup is among the images sent to food campaigner Sophie Morris
The video features a cartoon illustration of a plate of healthy food, which includes red cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, aubergine, potatoes and cherry tomatoes.
A cartoon of a boy eating cereal out of a packet is shown during the ‘unhealthy food’ part of the video.
Dame Emma says in the video: ‘Four and a half million children in the UK are growing up in poverty. For many, a healthy diet is unaffordable. Fewer than 10 per cent of teenagers eat enough fruit and veg.
‘And we see the impact of this lack of nutrients on those living in the most deprived areas. They’re growing up shorter than other kids.’
She adds: ‘Whilst some schools are managing to cook and serve healthy food, too many are now serving food that is unhealthy and lacking in essential nutrition. It is ultra-processed.’
Emma Thompson is behind a new film (pictured) that criticises headteachers and the Government over ‘ultra-processed food’ (UPF) in schools
The Food Foundation’s campaign is calling for food standards in schools to rise, to ensure pupils living in poverty have access to a healthy, hot meal
A young person then says: ‘Ultra processed food, UPF. It’s cheap, it’s high in calories but it’s very low in goodness.’
The actress hits out at the Government for not ‘monitoring what’s happening in the school food system’.
‘We just want to sit down to a school lunch that’s good for us,’ says another young person in the video.
Dame Emma adds: ‘Imagine that. Classrooms would be calmer, children with full tummies ready to learn… Every child has the right to healthy food – let’s get it right in all our schools. Let’s give all our kids a good lunch.’
The video comes 20 years after Jamie Oliver’s high profile campaign against ‘Turkey Twizzlers’ and other processed food in schools, which led to new Government standards for lunches.
Oliver‘s healthy-eating ‘Feed Me Better’ campaign singled out the corkscrew-shaped turkey sausage creations – shamed for containing just 34 per cent meat – and they were banned…before briefly making a comeback. They were discontinued once more in 2025.
Remember them? The additive-heavy Turkey Twizzlers were launched in 1997 but were axed in 2005 after Jamie Oliver’s healthy-eating ‘Feed Me Better’ campaign to ban them in schools
The corkscrew-shaped turkey sausage creations were singled out by the TV chef in his campaign to improve school dinners – and shamed for containing just 34 per cent meat
The new 2026 film is part of the Food Foundation’s campaign to update food standards in schools to make sure pupils living in poverty have access to a healthy, hot meal.
They say current food standards in schools do not take into account recent nutritional recommendations, and compliance with standards is not monitored.
The clip attracted diverse reaction from parents, school staff and the wider public on social media.
One critic said: ‘You can cook all the nutritious food you like, and schools do, including salad and fruit, but you cannot force a child to eat it.
‘They have a choice to eat what they want. The amount of nutritious good thrown away in primary [schools] is criminal.’
Another said: ‘I’d like to know the take-up because I hear kids don’t take it up because they don’t like the food.’
A third said: ‘I work in a school and we provide salad pots, hot meals, vegetables, pudding and fruit. A lot of children don’t want to eat the salad pots or the vegetables… We can supply everything but we cannot force a child to eat anything.’
However, others agreed with Dame Emma, with one saying: ‘I would never put my kids on school dinners the food is beige central with very little variety, even more so if your kids don’t eat meat.’
Another said: ‘Our school has some “interesting” food choices for a primary school that are more fitting for a working men’s club like a cheese and onion roll.’