Control, Resistance, and the Senses: Neurodivergent Perspectives of the UK School Meals Service; A Case Study

The UK school meals service has a distinctive history shaped by early welfare policies, austerity measures, and the introduction of universal free school meals, thus making it a useful case study for examining how state interventions and socioeconomic factors impact disabled and neurodivergent individuals and their families. Understanding these experiences can provide valuable insights into how national policies and cultural contexts influence inclusivity and how neurodivergent students can be better supported both in the telling of their stories and in school settings. In this article, we strive to bring into focus the perspectives of neurodivergent adults who experienced the UK meals service growing up. By doing so, we also endeavor to bridge the gap between the history of school meals and dining spaces and the history of education, which have often been treated separately. Children’s experiences of school meals—particularly neurodivergent children’s experiences—are largely absent from the history of education; yet, as we argue here, children’s experiences of food in school are integral to an understanding of the workings of pedagogy and education policy, and growing up disabled.