What now for The School Food Trust?

So I no longer sit on the board of a Quango. Today the government announced that the School Food Trust will lose its "non departmental body" status. The government want the Trust to be "retained" and have have said it will commission its services. It already is a charity and will move toward operating as Community Interest Company.

So what does that mean in English? My interpretation is that it has survived. Fans of feeding junk food to kids will be disappointed. There will be no ripping up of school food standards and a return to the bad old days of turkey twizzlers and the "muck off a truck" as the Soil Association famously once described school food.

My personal response is that I have every confidence the staff of the School Food Trust will do their best to make this work. I am not thrilled that the government see this as charity work and it makes me wonder about their commitment to improving childrens health. The school food revolution is NOT over!

You can see the School Food Trust response here.

Some recent school lunches

Children served dreadful food in hospital

It is hardly rocket science - children who are in hospital should be offered good quality tasty, healthy food that will nourish them. Yet a study published today reports children are served some dreadful junk whilst in hospital. Heavily processed foods containing sky high levels of salt fat and sugar fill the menus. Very little of the food offered would meet the standards set for school food. Isn't it screamingly obvious to suggest we should have minimum nutritional standards for hospital food?

It seems to me the main problem with the food is because it is cheap, industrially mass produced stuff which relies on high levels of fat and salt to give it any flavour. This is not good value for money. I am not advocating a puritanical health drive - merely good quality food, nicely prepared that is appetising and appealing for children.

Joan Walley MP is calling on the government to invest in decent food for all of the public sector. Click here to support her campaign

"Free" schools - the future?

I was invited to take part in a round table discussion for the BBC politics show about Mr Gove's idea for "free" schools where parents can set up there own independent school using state money. The reason I was asked to take part was because of the campaigning I have done with Merton Parents.

It was suggested to me that since I feel strongly about school food why didn't I set up a school that could focus on teaching great food skills, - gardening, cooking and with terrific school meals.

Now as attractive as that sounds I think this plan has several fatal flaws!

We want good school meals for ALL children in state schools. It is not an optional extra. When we first set up Merton Parents for Better Food in Schools our original demand was for a school kitchen in each and every school. The parents from Wimbledon Park had actually already got a decent kitchen by fundraising themselves but crucially they still supported our campaign because they understood this was something every school needed.

We live in a democracy. We led a democratic campaign to persuade the local authority we had a good case and it worked! The council backed down from their initially hostile position and changed its policy in response. If the response in future to problems with schools is simply to set up your own school we will be letting our children down.

If we had just opted out in the way Toby Young - a parent who wants to set up his own school, argues we should then there would be 39 schools in Merton with out kitchens, new improved menus and decent caterers. My advice to Toby or anyone else wanting to set up a free school was to get stuck in and campaign to get the improvements you want to see in state education.

Of course I am keen to persuade my own children's schools to take a lead on running school gardens and teaching cookery but that is not enough. we need to persuade heads, governors, local authority, parents & education ministers that all schools would benefit from good quality food education.

If I did set up a fantasy free school - would be great for the kids who got in but the resources we would take away from the remaining schools would be immoral.

As both Disney, high school musical and the Tory party say, " we're all in this together!" Let's help our schools to develop and not set up new schools in competition. Turning schools into a free market experiment could be disastrous and will threaten the viability of successful state comprehensives.

The program I took part in will be shown this sunday. Of course I may end up on the cutting room floor!

School Food Trust to be axed?

By now I am sure many of you have seen the leaked doc in the Telegraph suggesting that the School Food Trust is to be axed. Well actually it is not as simple as that as the trust is a charity so the government have no power to "axe" it.

In my own opinion as a parent, teacher and founder of Merton Parents for Better Food in Schools is that we need the School Food Trust because the job is not yet done. Six years ago before the trust was set up children were routinely served sub standard food,- cheap poor quality ingredients, high in fat, salt and sugar with little, if any, fresh fruit and veg. As parents in Merton we despaired because schools seemed helpless to combat it, the caterers were opposed to improvements and no one within either local or national government cared. This pushed us into action and we got hundreds of parents in Merton to complain and collect evidence. As you will know we won spectacular improvements which has lead to thousands of children and staff in merton eating good tasty, healthy school meals. However this is not the case everywhere and even where schools now want to make improvements they need help. This is where the School Food Trust comes in. They have fantastic resources for school staff, caterers, parents, students - or anyone who wants to see improvements.

If you look back at the recent history of school dinners you will see savage cuts, ripping out of kitchens and dining rooms, nutritional standards abolished, experienced cooks sacked and fresh food replaced with ready made junk. The School Food Trust have inherited a mountain of huge problems and they have made an impressive start. Given the scale of problems facing the school meal service it is hardly surprising that the Trust need longer to make radical improvements.

The staff are passionate,talented, hardworking and quite inspirational. Many of them could command much higher salaries working for industry. Axing the School Food Trust would be a big mistake and an ideological response - not an economic decision.

NB - these opinions are entirely my own. Anyone looking for a School Food Trust response please go to their website.

UPDATE Below is School Food Trust response: Responding to today’s story in the Daily Telegraph and the BBC, School Food Trust Chair Rob Rees said:

Like all Non Departmental Public Bodies we are waiting on the outcome of the Government’s review of arms length bodies to decide on whether the school food remains an NDPB. We can't comment on speculation or leaks.

Regardless of the outcome of the Arms Lenghts Bodies review the School Food Trust remains committed to this incredibly important agenda not least because of the huge economic, health and social costs of child obesity

.

Teachers eating school dinners with kids!

This is a giant leap forward! If school dinners are good enough for teachers to eat it generally means they are good enough for kids. It is massively reassuring to us parents and it is a kind of insurance policy against a fall in standards.

I appreciate teachers need a break from kids but thank you to all those of you teachers who choose to sit and eat with kids!

Have you signed the petition to save school meals?

There has been a tremendous improvement in school food since 2005. We have made enormous strides but we are still not there yet. That is why I am supporting the petition by the Soil Association, Children's Food Campaign and Merton parents to encourage the government to continue the good work.

Please sign it now and send the link to all your friends and family.

Sign the petition to defend school food