Sodexho survey shows children want cooking lessons

The vast majority of parents would like to see cooking lessons being provided for their children at school, according to a study by contract caterer Sodexho.

Amid increasing concerns about the health of the nation's children, and a warning this week from doctors that childhood obesity is now at epidemic levels, eight out of 10 parents, and 68% of pupils aged five to 16, said they wanted such lessons.

Yet just 38% of parents said they regularly cooked for their children every day. Even more worryingly, 24% of parents said that, if their child did not have a proper meal at school, they would be unlikely to have one at home.

The poll of more than a 1,000 children and a similar number of parents also found that 41% of eight to 16-year-olds rarely ate meals with their parents at home.

But school meals were enjoyed by 84% of children, with pizza the top choice. Chips have fallen out of the list of top five favourites for the first time in six years, to be replaced by curry.

And when it comes to buying food, children's spending power has increased by 68% in the past four years, Sodexho's seventh biennial School Meals Survey found.

They now spend more than £1.3 billion a year on food, with nearly a third of it going on snacks on the way to and from school.

Among eight to 16-year-olds, sweets accounted for 42% of money spent, crisps 33%, chocolate 28% and chewing gum 9%.

Just 68% of children thought their diet was healthy, with 26% saying they did not do enough exercise. Watching too much television, being lazy and spending too much time talking to friends were the main culprits.

Schools had an ever more important role in educating children about food, health and exercise, as well as often being the primary provider of meals, said Jim Brewster, managing director of Sodexho Education.

"Though parents are giving their children more freedom to make their own food choices, it's increasingly a partnership between teachers, parents and suppliers, such as ourselves, to educate children and encourage them to make the right choices," he added.