FHSC Seminars: The 6th Annual Dorothy Flude Memorial Lecture Hunger, Health and Hope: A History of School Meals in Britain with Dr Heather Ellis
What children eat at school has long been a matter of political debate, social concern, and everyday experience. Since the introduction of the School Meals Service in 1906, meals served in schools have been used to tackle malnutrition, reduce inequality, and promote social inclusion. They have also been the site of controversy, from free milk in the 1940s to Jamie Oliver’s campaign against Turkey Twizzlers, and today’s calls for universal free school meals.
This lecture explores how policy, practice, and lived experience have shaped school dining across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. With reference to new oral histories, archival evidence, and ethnographic studies in contemporary schools, the lecture highlights the emotional and sensory dimensions of mealtimes as well as their wider social and cultural meanings. At stake is more than what children eat. School meals open a window onto questions of inequality, poverty, community, and the politics of care.
This event is also open to non-members, with fee of £5. Registration opens on 1st October when the red ‘Register [Individual]’ button will show on the top left of this page, just click on that button, you will also receive an email confirmation. Non-members will be required to create a free FHSC account and complete the payment details. Registration will close on 19th October.
The zoom links/meeting protocol will be forwarded to all registrants the day before the talk.
If you run into any difficulties with this, then please contact us on the dedicated seminar email address – The Seminar series is co-ordinated by Margaret Spate, Jean Laidlaw and Margaret Roberts and ALL correspondence, queries etc should be sent to the dedicated email address.
PLEASE NOTE WE DO NOT RECORD SEMINAR TALKS
Event Information
| Event Date | Wed 21-10-2026 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm |
| Registration Cut Off Date | Mon 19-10-2026 11:55 pm |
| Cancel Before Date | Wed 21-10-2026 7:30 pm |
| Registered | 59 |
| Individual Price | FHSC members free, non-members £5 |
| Location | Zoom |
| Organising Group | FHSC Seminars |
Venue Information - Zoom
Used for all meetings hosted on Zoom unless hybrid
Speakers
Dr Heather Ellis
Dr Heather Ellis is Associate Professor in the History of Education at the University of Sheffield. A historian of education and childhood, her research combines archival and oral history approaches to explore how policy and lived experience intersect in schooling and welfare. Heather has written widely on the cultural and social history of education, childhood, and inequality. Heather is Co-I on the AHRC/ESRC-funded research project The School Meals Service: Past, Present, and Future? (Grant No ES/X000737/1, 2023-2025) and is Co-editor of the journal, History of Education. Heather gained her PGCert in Academic Practice from Liverpool Hope University in 2013 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has taught a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in British and European History and History of Education. Before starting at Sheffield, she taught at Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Liverpool Hope University. In Berlin, Heather was a Lecturer and Researcher in British History. At Liverpool Hope, she was Senior Lecturer in History of Education and was responsible for designing, organising and delivering all courses in the History of Education at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. She has supervised many successful MA theses in British, European and educational history. At Sheffield, she teaches on both the MA and EdD programmes (Higher Education strand) and would be happy to supervise PhD and EdD students looking to work in the history of knowledge, intellectual history and the history of higher education.