THE crusade to make school dinners in the region healthier received a boost yesterday with a £280m Government package.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said schools should spend at least 50p per child on food ingredients in a bid to transform the quality of school meals.

From September, and over the next three years, schools and local education authorities will receive extra cash to provide healthy food, prepared fresh on the premises by qualified cooks.

It comes after a campaign by chef Jamie Oliver, who criticised the use of processed food in school dinners and showed how some schools spend just 37p on a meal.

During his television series, Jamie's School Dinners, he visited Eden Community Primary School, in Peterlee, County Durham, to try to persuade youngsters to swap chips and burgers for vegetables and salad.

New figures recently revealed that Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton councils are in the bottom five local education authorities in the country for money spent per pupil, per meal.

Stockton spent only 35p on ingredients for primary school lunches.

The new Government measures include a minimum spend on ingredients of 50p per pupil, per day for primary schools, and 60p per pupil, per day for secondary schools, as well as providing increased training and working hours for school cooks.

At least £60m will enable a new School Food Trust to give independent advice to schools and parents and tough minimum nutrition standards developed by an expert panel will be introduced in schools from September.

Parents will be able to work with schools and the trust to improve the quality of their child's school meal, with a dedicated 'tool kit' for parents to be published in May.

Ofsted will review the quality of school meals as part of regular school inspections again from September.

Ms Kelly said: "This £280m package will make a real difference.

"But it is not just about money for ingredients, it is also about ensuring schools have the expertise available.

"And it is not just about banning what is unhealthy, it is also about promoting what is healthy."

The UK's largest union Unison welcomed the move. A spokesman said: "We have long been campaigning for better school meals for the nation's children."

PM Tony Blair, who met the celebrity chef yesterday, paid tribute to him but said the Government had been working on the issue for quite a long time.

He said: "It's an idea whose time has come. It's obvious we should do it.

"I would pay tribute to Jamie.

"What his programme has done is brought into focus what everyone in their heart of hearts knows - which is if you feed children decent food, you are more likely to get responsible children who are healthier and fitter."

But the Opposition attacked Mr Blair over the plans, saying they had been "cobbled together" after Jamie Oliver raised the issue.

Shadow education secretary Tim Collins said: "After eight years in office, ten education Bills, four secretaries of state and a five-year education plan last year which did not even mention the school dinners issue, it is breathtakingly cynical for Mr Blair to claim that he is passionate about the quality of school meals just because a celebrity chef has made a TV programme about it."