The Government is reviewing the School Food Standards - the rules that decide what children are served in schools. Right now, schools in England are still required to serve meat, dairy, and fish, even if they want to offer more plant-based meals.

This public consultation is a rare opportunity to change that.

By submitting a response, you can help show the Department for Education that people want more sustainable, more compassionate food in schools, and that schools should have the freedom to choose more plant-based options.

To make taking part easier, Plant-Based Schools has prepared suggested responses to the consultation questions for you. These responses support:

• Removing the mandatory meat, dairy, and fish requirements
• Giving schools greater flexibility over their menus
• Increasing access to healthy plant-rich meals for children
• Reducing the environmental impact of school food and the number of animals exploited for meals served in schools

The consultation can take time to complete, so we have automatically filled in suggested answers to help you submit a response quickly and easily. However, if you have time, we do recommend filling out the consultation directly to ensure that there are varied responses. 

Make sure to respond as 'other' if you do not fit into the listed categories. (Please note that the auto-filled answers will not update but the answers will update in the submission which you can check in the confirmation email) 

Here are the steps to complete the consultation: 

1. Fill-in your email, location and who you are
2. Before submitting, you can click “Show Answers” to read through the responses in full 
3. To personalise or change any of the answers, you can complete the consultation manually using the official Government form. You can access the full consultation here.
4. Once you have filled in your details and reviewed the answers, simply submit your response. You should then receive a confirmation email from the Department for Education.

Every response helps demonstrate public support for ending mandatory meat and dairy in schools and creating a food system that is better for children, animals, and the planet.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]