S06E09 The School

Meals Service with Heather Ellis: shownotes

Neil’s guest today is Heather Ellis from Sheffield University. Helen is a historian of Education and she, along with academics from the University of Wolverhampton and UCL, have just embarked on an ambitious project looking at people’s experiences and memories of their school dinners in all four UK Home Nations. School dinners have been supplied by the School Meals Service – i.e. by the Government – since 1908.

They talked about the project, the origins of the School Meals Service in the first decade of the 20th century, the foods served up over the next 100 years or so including pink sponge and custard, liver with the tubes attached and the now infamous turkey twizzlers, Maggie Thatcher – milk snatcher, the fall in the quality of school dinners, as well as Jamie Oliver’s campaign to get them sorted out, and many other things. The School Meals Project wants your food memories if you have had experience with school meals in the UK, however old you may be and whatever the interaction may be.

School Meals Project website: https://www.theschoolmealsproject.co.uk/

Find Heather on Twitter @HeatherLWEllis

Find The School Meals Project on Twitter: @ESRCSchoolMeals

Jamie Oliver’s school meals campaign clip: https://youtu.be/DG66rKiNkw4

When published, Neil’s blog post with a recipe for sago pudding, will be found at www.britishfoodhistory.com

Other past blog post recipes for school dinner-style foods:

Rice pudding: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2015/01/14/rice-pudding/

How to make a steamed sponge pudding: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/01/13/how-to-make-a-steamed-sponge-pudding-a-step-by-step-guide/

Jam roly-poly: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/11/26/jam-roly-poly/

Proper custard: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/03/02/proper-custard/

Eton Mess: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/08/11/eton-mess/

Other bits:

The Elizabeth Raffald Manchester Central Library event at 6pm on 13 September: https://librarylive.co.uk/event/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper/

Neil will be speaking at the Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September at 2.30pm, talking all things Elizabeth Raffald: https://www.ludlowfoodfestival.co.uk/

He is also talking at Chelsea History Festival on Friday 29 September 2023, at 6pm about the history of sugar: https://chelseahistoryfestival.com/events/dark-history-sugar/

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’ http://britishfoodhistory.com

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’ http://neilcooksgrigson.com

Order Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper at your favourite bookshop, or from the publisher Pen & Sword History: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Before-Mrs-Beeton-Hardback/p/22437

Neil’s other book A Dark History of Sugar is available now from all bookshops as well as from the publisher Pen & Sword: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

Don’t forget there will be a postbag episode at the end of the season, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at [email protected], or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

Mentioned in this episode:

Fruit Pig are currently sponsoring The British Food History Podcast

Visit fruitpig.co.uk for more details of their products and journey, and to access their shop. Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the BFHP a unique special offer: 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.