What we learnt from the SchoolFood4Change general assembly in Prague

This month, we were invited to Prague to share our experience of delivering a whole school approach to food in the UK at the SchoolFood4Change annual general assembly.

Our Senior Programme Manager Charlotte Long presented on our experiences of implementing the whole school approach in England. This prompted lots of discussion on:

📈 How to measure impact
📝 How we work with public procurement – have we seen changes since Brexit?
🗳️ Whether government support changed during this time
🧑‍🍳 How we connect caterers and schools
🏫 How our local programme teams support schools

It was excellent to hear more about school food in Europe – what’s going well, the challenges and how we can work together.

💡 Food for Life’s pioneering approach to school food is inspiring work across Europe, with many countries looking to us for inspiration
🏞️ The landscape today is more challenging than when Food for Life launched in 2007. We can learn a lot from other countries’ approaches to challenges like climate change and lack of funding.
🤝 We are not alone. Lots of countries want the same as we do – healthy and sustainable school food – and we’re much stronger working together.
📈 We've come a long way in the UK already. It’s easy to be pessimistic and think about all the progress that still needs to be made, but it’s important to reflect on our successes so far.