Where do I sign up that looks delicious.

A lot of countries seem to manage to provide really good school lunches. Totally unlike, say, the US, where it's usually crap and has gradually been getting worse.

I think it all but requires some existing, quality-valuing food culture. Try to serve good lunches to kids here and you'd have all the parents crying about how their kids "can't" eat that and need an Uncrustable and chocolate milk instead or whatever.

We used to have free milk, but Thatcher got rid of that (Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher).

One challenge in the UK, especially somewhere like London, is we have a fair amount of diversity in food choices.

Providing nutritious, tasty meals on a very limited budget with options for vegan, vegetarian, kosher, halal, gluten free and other diets can be a challenge for schools, and many primary schools are quite small without cooking facilities. When I was young, it was normal in primary to bring a "packed lunch" from home, usually a sandwich and crisps. The standard UK lunch as an adult is still a sandwich for most people. The move towards free cooked school meals has been suggested because turns out that many don't have access to a daily healthy cooked meal at home.

BTW kosher = halal, both have almost the same requirements.

I went to school in the 80’s and 90’s in Canada (suburbs of Toronto) and school lunch was not free. The primary school did not have facilities to prepare lunch, and high school had a pay-as-you-go cafeteria. I don’t know if things have changed.

> The primary school did not have facilities to prepare lunch

The normal response to that is to use a contract or municipal service to bring in hot food. It's usually municipal.

Same in the suburbs of Quebec.

However we had decently cheap lunch, and above all even cheaper breakfast provided by the Petits Déjeuners, for which I am very grateful.

I only realised later that my parents struggled at times, and that those were lifesavers for them.

Around 20% of kids get school meals for free whether it's being under a certain age or in a household under a certain income, but in most cases, no, school lunches aren't free. As a parent, I am aware that some kids, mostly in secondary education, will buy snacks for their friends or share their lunch with them if they can't afford it every day.