The provision of school meals has undergone significant changes since the earliest national legislation to support it was passed in 1906.This keynote lecture will examine its general aims, achievements and limitations over this time in the context of a changing society. At first provided only permissively in particular local areas, it became a fully national service following the Second World War, the 1944 Education Act and the rise of the Welfare State. Yet by the 1960s it was beginning to be eroded, and by the early 21st century it was again contested and controversial.  The lecture will seek to explain the changing position of the SMS over the past century and its implications for today.