(Healthy food)are proving so unpopular in some parts of the country. There is a warning that some catering services are in danger of collapse. 60 percent of English secondary schools who responded to a BBC survey reported a fall in the number of pupils wanting cooked meals. Now our correspondent Collette McBeth is at Chater High School in Ipswich for us. How is it looking there then Collette?

Well, this was supposed to be the beginning of the school dinner's revolution. Out with fatty foods like chips and chicken nuggets, more things like chili vegetable pasta we can see on the menu here. But now that these healthy meals are on sale, many school caterers are asking exactly how many pupils want to eat them.

Lunch time at Barr's Hill School in Coventry and there is a new healthier menu to choose from. This was one of the first secondary schools this term to adopt the government's new guidelines limiting the amount of fried and fatty food. Good news you may think but the canteen here has seen a fall in demand. Some children are simply choosing to eat elsewhere.

I go out of school for meals here because I don't like healthy foods and I prefer chocolate and crisps.

I think I'd rather have a packed lunch because I can have anything I want and I know that I will actually eat it.

And it seems to be the same picture in many parts of the country. The BBC spoke to 59 of the 150 local authorities across England. Almost 60 percent of them said the number of children opting for school meals had fallen since last year. In Scotland too, the latest figures show a small drop in the number of secondary school pupils eating school meals. While in Wales, Denbighshire has become the first local authority to say its whole school meal service is under threat. Some local authorities say the changes were rushed in too quickly and even blame the so-called Jamie Oliver effect. His campaign may have got the government's attention but it seems many children remain unconvinced.

I think the government have got it wrong in as much as they did not give the caterers enough time to do this. They have not given the manufactures enough time to actually get the products needed to comply with the regulations and to actually give enough information to schools and to pupils about why we are doing it.

School food campaigners say there were always going to be teething problems and parents need to do more to encourage children to swap their chips and fizzy drinks for a healthier diet.

So there are many possible explanations for this downturn. Jamie Oliver, who spearheaded the campaign, says that the government still aren't giving enough money. They have pledged 220 million over the next 3 years. But when you take that down to each individual kitchen like this one, and each individual pupil, it amounts to very little. The other reason is this may have all happened too quickly. Some campaigners say if you and I as parents were to swap the baked beans, for say, mung beans on the kitchen table, we too would meet with some resistance, and that's exactly what's happening in schools. Back to you.


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VOCABULARY
1.nugget n. a small round piece of some types of food: chicken nuggets
2.chili also chile or chilli n. pl. chilies also chiles or chilis or chillies
(1). any of various pungent peppers related to the tomato. (2). a thick sauce of meat and chilies.
3. pasta n.[it]: 1.a paste in processed form (as macaroni) or in the form of fresh dough (as ravioli). 2. a dish of cooked pasta.
4. opt v. to make a choice; esp: to decide in favor of something
5. downturn n. a downward turn especially in economic activity.
6. spearhead n. a leading force, element, or influence.
spearhead v.