Chefs join Food for Life in calling for better school meals at major farming event

The Food for Life approach to delivering healthy and sustainable school meals should be mandated nationally, a recent major farming event has been told.

Soil Association Head of Policy Rob Percival joined celebrity chef Tommi Miers on a panel at Groundswell farming festival that discussed how schools should be serving better food produced by British farmers.

They were joined on the panel by a Conservative MP who described Copenhagen as a success story, where almost 90% of food served in public settings like schools and hospitals is organic.

Speaking on the panel, Rob pointed out that just last year, Food for Life menus drove a £50million investment in British produce, including £12million for organic and £15million for British meat.

He said: “Food for Life is almost as much of a success story as Copenhagen. We need this mandated nationally to make this normality. We are building a whole school approach that [puts] cooks and caterers at the heart of things and puts school meals at the centre of the day.”

The panel also discussed the dire situation in which thousands of children living in poverty are currently ineligible for free school meals.

The Soil Association and Food for Life supports the campaigns for universal free school meals – and at the very least for free school meals to be extended to all families receiving universal credit. We call for Westminster to follow the lead being set in Wales.

Naomi Duncan, from Chefs in Schools which also works to improve school meals and improve food education, said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful that England is so far behind the curve. We are seeing, every day, children coming to school who are tired and hungry. This is not unacceptable.”

After the event, Tommi Miers spoke in support of free school meals and also backed Food for Life, urging all local government administrations to introduce it in their areas.

She said: “I would say to any council to look at the evidence on what investment of school food does and how much it positively affects their community. If they’re going to meet all their climate commitments, then food is a key part of that. For saving the NHS and for saving the economy, food is fundamental. Our diets are killing the NHS.”