Helping schools deliver quality meals to pupils

The education catering sector of the hospitality industry may seem to many to be the ‘poor relation’ in comparison to the rest – but not to those that work within schools across the UK. These are people who are passionate and care about the important job they have. The school catering industry is worth over £1 billion to the UK economy and employs more than 100,000 workers, making it, as one commentator has recently said, “a bigger workforce than the Royal Navy.”
     
Education caterers are responsible for feeding 3.1 million children and young people every day in over 22,000 schools. Chefs/cooks and kitchen teams are employed variously by the local authority (56 per cent),a private contract caterer (32 per cent) or directly for a school that has brought its catering in house (12 per cent).
    
Logistics and provision are complex – there are many different types of schools with diverse models of food provision, and budgets and financial arrangements vary across different types and sizes of kitchen. Some schools don’t have a kitchen and therefore arrangements have to be made for the lunches to be cooked elsewhere and transported in to the school.

Combating a health crisis
Where else in the hospitality industry are there teams of caterers that can so directly influence the health of this country? The UK  faces a serious health crisis caused by bad diet. Almost 20 per cent of children are obese by the time they leave primary school at the age of 11. Diet related illnesses are putting a huge strain on the nations NHS budget - up to £10 billion every year.
    
LACA believes that every child across the UK should have the same opportunity to access a nutritious meal, irrespective of the type of school in which they are educated. LACA wants equality and accessibility for pupils that will help them make the right food choices and understand the importance of food and the need for a varied diet.
    
With reports suggesting that a growing number of children are arriving at school hungry, the role of school food, including breakfast clubs in schools is more vital than ever before. Ensuring that the most nutritionally vulnerable children in our society have the opportunity to have a breakfast and a hot nutritious school lunch every day is absolutely essential.

Nutritional standards
The quality of food in schools has significantly improved, and this is attributed to the two sets of standards that were introduced and became legislation six/seven years ago. These superseded all previous legislation that applied to school food.
    
Food based standards defines the types of food which are no longer allowed or are restricted, in order to replace food high in fat, sugar and salt with more nutritious food and drinks.

Nutrient-based standards aim to make the food offered healthier by increasing the vitamin and mineral content and decreasing fat, saturated fat, non milk extrinsic sugars and sodium content. There are fourteen nutrients that school food has to by law incorporate into the weekly menu offered to the children and young people.

Increasing take up
Many parents think that a packed lunch is the healthiest option. It’s quite the reverse as it’s easier to get the necessary nutrients into a cooked meal. Only one per cent of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards that currently apply to school food.
    
The take up of school food currently averages at about 48 per cent across the UK and is continuing to grow. However, to be financially viable the service needs to be at least 50-55 per cent otherwise it will need to be subsidised by either school budgets or local council funding.
    
Increasing take up requires a cultural change in schools with support and commitment from the head teachers, governing bodies and school leadership teams. Food needs to be cooked that is nutritious, appetising and attractive to the pupils. It needs to be served and eaten in dining halls that have a calm and welcoming ambience.

An innovative service
Many schools operate a ‘cashless system’. Instead of paying for the food with cash, each student’s account is accessed at the point of sale terminal by presenting their card or, in the case of biometric systems, their finger to the reader. The student’s photo appears on the screen along with their existing balance on their account. The cashier uses the touch screen terminal to enter the food details and automatically will be informed of credit available, daily spend limit and any relevant dietary information. The system significantly increases the speed of service at meal times by removing all cash transactions from the point of sale enabling increased throughput and therefore reducing queuing times.

A government review
There has been a welcome announcement from Government that cooking will be compulsory on the curriculum for all students up to the age of 14 from September 2014. This will help our young people understand where food comes from and be able to grow and cook healthy food.
    
In July 2012, the Education Secretary Michael Gove commissioned John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby to review school food. The aim was for them to produce an action plan that addressed how to get children eating well in school and what role cooking and food should play more broadly in school life.

The School Food Plan was launched in July 2103 and contains a series of actions, each of which is the responsibility of a named person or organisation.
    
The clear objective of the Plan is to increase the uptake of school meals, and the 17 actions provide details of what needs to happen to transform how children can eat well at school and how they learn about food.
    
It includes the pleasures of growing, cooking and eating good food. It is also about improving the academic performance of our children and young people and the health of the nation.

Assisting head teachers
It is clear from the School Food Plan that head teachers are the only people who can truly lead the revolution in school food. There is a checklist provided to help them start to turn round their food service. I personally think that this announcement will have a significant positive effect the catering industry.
    
I truly believe that this will be the start of a social change in this country in that children and young people will understand from an early age where food comes from and by giving them a nutritious meal in school, they will understand and appreciate the benefits of good food.

Further information
www.schoolfoodplan.com