Pupils in Witney are chewing over ideas for healthy packed lunches as part of a national drive to tackle child obesity.

Katie Bigos, Sam Dalton and Gemma Slee, pictured, attend The Blake Primary.

It is one of about 100 schools in the South East which is looking at ways to fill lunch boxes with interesting and inexpensive healthy food.

The initiative was launched after research revealed that a high number of children eat unhealthy snacks, while a disturbing percentage are overweight.

It is one of eight schemes being piloted across the country as part of a £2.2m Food for Schools programme run by the Department of Health.

According to the Food Standards Agency, nine in every 10 children take food containing too much sugar, salt and saturated fat to school.

And the Health Development Agency has discovered that one in seven 15-year-olds and one in 12 six-year-olds are obese, which could lead to a range of serious illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Marilyn Trigg, headteacher at The Blake School, said about three-quarters of the 323 pupils, aged five to 11, took packed lunches to school and all of them would be joining in the healthy eating initiative, run by the British Nutrition Foundation.

She said: "The BNF did a survey on lunch boxes at the school, and talked to the children about their packed lunches.

"They were very impressed about the knowledge the children have.

"We do not allow biscuits at break time. Pupils can only have raw vegetables, fruit and water.

"We can't dictate what children have in their lunch boxes, but we can encourage certain foods.

"This year we're having a whole year of healthy eating and we're setting up a committee which will include children from each year. We're making sure that the children are really involved."

Eventually, all the ideas will be drawn together to develop a nationwide approach to promote healthy eating for children as well as adults to draw up schemes.

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