Baroness Floella Benjamin once said “childhood lasts a lifetime” and our experiences of school dinners can shape how we eat for the rest of our lives. In this edition of The Food Programme Sheila Dillon investigates the importance of those early food memories with the help of Dr Heather Ellis from the School Meals Project. The Project says its aim is to produce the first ever comprehensive history of school meals across the different nations of the United Kingdom The programme makes a trip to the Food Museum in Suffolk to see a landmark exhibition around school food and Sheila pays a visit to a forward-thinking school in West London which bakes its own bread with flour made from the wheat that it grows just outside the school kitchen!

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Robin Markwell

Featuring an archive clip from BBC Breakfast in April 2025 with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson MP
Also a brief extract from the book The Farmer's Wife: My Life In Days by Helen Rebanks