MBE honour for school food plan restaurateurs

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Restaurateurs Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent have been made MBEs in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for their work in improving school lunches.

The pair, co-founders of the Leon restaurant chain, led a government commissioned independent review of school food, published two years ago.

Their report formed the basis of revised rules on school dinners in England, brought in earlier this year.

John Vincent said the aim was to bring about a cultural change in schools.

'Children as customers'

It was vital to boost the uptake of school dinners to promote "a virtuous cycle of quality" and simply changing the rules on what could be served was not enough, said Mr Vincent.

Introducing free school meals for all infant pupils and more cookery lessons in schools would help, he argued, but "treating individual children as customers, sorting out the queues and making the food great", were key.

Ultimately the pair believe better nutrition in schools will help both boost attainment and improve the nation's health.

Mr Vincent called the work "a massive privilege and a character building task".

"This recognition is a tribute to all of the people who work hard every day to provide health, pleasure and improved attainment to our children," he said.

In 2012 the pair were asked to examine nutrition in England's schools and suggest improvements.

Their School Food Plan, was published a year later.

Mr Dimbleby said they had become involved at a time when improvements in school catering were already under way.

A campaign fronted by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver had already brought about changes to the quality of food served in English schools - but less than half of children actually ate them, with many preferring packed lunches of variable nutritional quality.

Their current aim is to showcase best practice in school catering and bring about "a golden age for school food".

"I think it's reflective of the fact that the sector, which used to work quite disparately, doing lots of good things, has really come together and there's an amazing, positive, constructive atmosphere of improvement across the country," said Mr Dimbleby.

"I think the MBE is recognition of that, rather than anything John and I have done."

Mr Dimbleby said he was always impressed by what he saw when he went into schools.

"There's real change happening, in five years time the whole sector will be completely transformed."

Under the new rules, which came into force in January, meals must include at least one portion of vegetables or salad every day and no more than two portions of fried foods or pastry-based foods a week.

The regulations are mandatory for local authority schools as well academies set up before 2010 or after June 2014.

However academies set up between 2010 and June 2014 are exempt, a source of frustration to campaigners.

The government maintains it has encouraged these academies to sign up voluntarily to the new standards and that hundreds have already done so.

In total, about 11% of recipients on the honours list have been recognised for their work in the education sector. Others include Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, who becomes a CBE.

Among the 30 head teachers on the list are Nicholas Weller, executive principal of Dixons Academies in Bradford, who has been knighted. The announcement comes the day after the stabbing of a teacher during a science class at one of his schools, Dixons Kings Academy.