Jamie Oliver has managed to achieve the kind of
revolution in school meals few would have thought possible. It was an unfashionable cause, but his campaign for healthier meals, which he started in 2005, resulting in legislation passed in 2006, lays out the nutritional standards to which all school caterers must comply.
Starchy carbohydrates must provide the main source of energy in the meal and a large range of fruit and vegetables must also be on offer. Children’s exposure to sugary, fatty, and salty foods is limited and schools are obliged to provide food and drinks packed with essential nutrients.
However, pressure on local authority budgets coupled with rising food prices means this is becoming more difficult. Oliver said last month that the government’s policies were undoing some of the changes he has fought for. Education secretary Michael Gove has ended the school lunch grant as a source of funding and exempted academies from the nutritional standards.
“The impact of the removal of the school lunch grant as a separate income strand within school budgets, combined with the tough austerity measures being called for by local government within public services, is now being felt,” says Lynda Mitchell, chair of the LACA (previously the Local Authority Caterers Association). “Local authorities and schools are having to look at alternative means of maintaining standards of school meal provision. This means considering new ways of delivering school food services and/or having to make price increases.”
Taken together, it means school meals are under pressure. According to Elaine Long, head of school meals at Bolton Council, which in 2010 had the highest uptake in the country at 70 per cent, there is significant call to reduce costs. “In the last two years, food inflation has been very high, with many cost sector food services having to contend with 12 per cent-plus inflation across food expenditure,” she says.
For those interested in becoming school food suppliers, the government has aimed to make the process more transparent. As of 2010, the Transforming Public Procurement initiative means there is a requirement for any contract worth over £10,000 to be advertised. “Typically, the life of a contract will be two to three years,” says procurement consultant Gareth Jones. “Contracts are coming up at a rate of about one or two a week, depending on the size, and they tend to be let for two to three years.”
According to Mitchell, there are numerous ways to source school meals. “You need to appreciate there are 149 local authorities in the country and I could probably find 148 different ways the catering is set up,” she says.
At Bolton Council, school food is procured both regionally and locally. “A large number of factors are taken into account when fresh food contracts are tendered and specifications reflect sustainable, local, safety and quality factors so that the best possible ingredients reach the school lunch plate,” Long explains. “Quality as well as price plays a large part in food contract evaluation. Food suppliers are scrutinised and monitored and there is full traceability of growers and producers to provide extra assurances,” she says.
In Bolton, the council decided the health benefits of a school meal were so great, especially for those unlikely to eat a nutritious meal at home, it decided to offer school meals for just £1 in all 96 primary schools in the area throughout 2010. Each year, 3,000 children start school in Bolton and according to the council’s Malcolm Veigas, “for a number of them, it is the first time they have had a knife and fork in their hands”. The promotion ran for a year and the council underwrote the £1.2 million cost. The benefits were huge, says Veigas, in terms of improved concentration and behaviour in the afternoons and school meal uptake rose to 70 per cent of pupils at its peak.
Despite criticism of the government, there is some good news in the form of confirmation from the department of health (DH) that the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is to continue. It had been rumoured that funding for the scheme, which provided a free piece of fruit or vegetable to all four- to six-year-olds each school day, was to be cut after March 2012. Even School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme suppliers such as Mark Driver of Minor Weir and Willis told FPJ he had been told “nothing at all” about the future of the scheme. Likewise, Mitchell says all her discussions with the DH had led her to believe the scheme was up in the air. “All the discussions I’ve had around that with the DH have been unclear about where that will go from here,” she says. In a statement, a spokesman for the DH said: “The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is continuing, there are no plans to end it.”
Circumstances may be difficult, but local authorities such as Bolton are demonstrating that the commitment to school meals initiated by Oliver six years ago is alive and well, and with confirmation that the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is to continue, the supply chain is working together to feed children healthier meals.
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