Young Curators – Accessibility of School Canteens

We started running our first Young Curators programme in October 2024, in partnership with the Museum of the Home, Quadram Institute, the School Meals Project, and Chefs in Schools. Designed to give young people hands-on experience in museums, participants aged 15-28 collaborated with museum professionals, academics, and food experts to conduct research that will contribute to our upcoming School Dinners exhibition. You can read more about their October residential trip here

In our latest blog update, one of our Young Curators Liv takes a look at the accessibility of school canteens.

Through my research I focused on an area personally close to me – the accessibility of school canteens. This stems from two main angles: the atmosphere/environment of the canteen and dietary needs from the food. I was interested to learn about the different issues people have with school dinners based on their own individual experience and how they felt these aspects could be better approached to be more inclusive while still being within the feasibility of a school.

In looking at dietary requirements I found that many people perceive the choices and options available differently from those who experience it. Many with dietary requirements felt they had limited options while those without saw little difference in food availability. This was interesting in my realising the lack of appreciation those with no dietary needs have for those that do – they don’t perceive any level of differing hardship. The struggle to find suitable options in the school canteen for people with dietary requirements influences the fact that many people with extra needs choose to take a packed lunch – a decision it seems would be more so widely popular if it weren’t for the convenience of school dinners, the factor that appears to be the most prominent driving force of their popularity (from my surveying). This issue begs the question of what those with dietary needs that are unable to take a packed lunch (for example if they receive free school meals) are able to do to ensure they get a suitable meal. This was not delved into in my research but I would say there are little options and be interested in conducting more research on how others view this/navigate the situation.

My other perspective of exploring the canteen environment uncovered how many feel the hectic nature of school lunch spaces detracts from the content of the food by providing a social overwhelm. This takes away from lunch as being and opportunity to relax and recharge, thereby, enforcing unhealthy working habits in relation to prioritising that over mealtime and taking a break. It is needless to say this can be detrimental to one’s ability to perform in lessons to the best of their ability, therefore, directly contradicting the purpose of schools. It is important to teach a healthy working balance to children (something many older students lack) due to the perpetuation of prioritising work – a negative example one of my oral history interviewees felt was set by teachers who ‘often don’t have lunch themselves’.

Overall, school dinners are not (and have likely never been) accessible to anybody with different requirements whether that be sensory or dietary. However, this is a difficult issue to address as the staff working in school canteens certainly don’t have an easy job. There is little way to navigate having alternative meal spaces without branching out into the whole school and similarly little way to meet every dietary need with considerations of budget and cross-contamination. This doesn’t, however, mean issues of accessibility surrounding school dinners should not be considered and we should continue to make an active effort to find ways to improve this.