EDUCATION chiefs in North Yorkshire are examining ways to increase the number of pupils eating school dinners.

North Yorkshire County Council's young people overview and scrutiny committee is meeting on Friday to discuss an action plan to boost the uptake, which for the current academic year stands at 41.8 per cent.

The action comes despite this figure remaining stable over the last two years and it comparing very favourably with the percentage of pupils eating school meals in York.

The Press reported last week that less than a third of York's schoolchildren are eating school dinners. The school meal take-up rate in the city has dropped to 32.5 per cent.

This represents a gradual declining trend since 2003-4, when more than 38 per cent of children were eating school meals in the city. The percentage of primary schoolchildren taking a school meal in the city dropped to 31 per cent during last year's summer term, and then rose in the autumn term to 32.5 per cent. Traditionally school meal uptake is low during the summer term, when pupils often favour packed lunches.

But the figures still represent a significant downturn, at a time when the Government is introducing a new national performance indicator on school meal uptake from April 2008.

The North Yorkshire young people overview and scrutiny committee has completed a review of the school meals provision and concluded that its in-house catering service provided a good all-round service.

It is looking at four options: to maintain the current service; to increase the number of transported meals; to explore the option of regenerated frozen meals or to pass the responsibility on to schools. In North Yorkshire, North Yorkshire County Caterers has been the provider of the school meals service for some time.

They provide meals for 316 primary schools and 31 secondary schools across the county or 3,415,200 meals in the last academic year - representing a 42 per cent uptake.

However, the School Food Trust, which was established by the Department for Education and Skills in 2005 to improve the quality of food in schools, has set a target to increase school lunch uptake to 46.5 per cent by March 2008 and 52.5 per cent by March 2009.

Councillors will meet at County Hall, in Northallerton, at 2pm, on Friday to talk over the school meal options.