Sustainable food procurement initiative - Blackawton School
Case Study: Blackawton School
Region: South West
Organisation: Blackawton Primary School, South Devon (Study carried out by Devon Food Links)
Description: Parent volunteers concerned that their children were being sent home with letters regarding their bad behaviour at meal times decided to spend time eating in the school at lunchtime to observe the activities. They found: ·
- The number of children taking the school meal had dropped to 20. The rest were bringing in a packed lunch - of variable quality .
- Bullying at lunch times is associated with lunch box one-upmanship and there was plenty of this going on.
- Portions were very small - some of the older children were clearly still hungry at the end of the meal.
- The quality of the food was very poor and everything was highly processed. Typical menus included Turkey Twizzlers, creamed potatoes (reconstituted) and frozen peas or tinned sweet corn.
- No local food was being used and this upset many parents. Blackawton is a rural school and serves many farming families.
In September 2001, the contract with the central school meals supplier was ended and a new enthusiastic kitchen Manager (Lorraine) was given responsibility for providing the school meal service. Numbers of children taking the meal have risen to 70 on average. Blackawton manages to provide a quality school meal using local produce for £1.35. There are seven children in the school eligible for free school meals. To improve the quality of the lunchtime meal Lorraine introduced a morning break time snack bar where the children can purchase hot chocolate and biscuits or cake, fruit, milk and cordials. The profit from this goes towards the purchase of higher quality foods such as fresh fish. This could be considered an indirect form of subsidy on top of the basic school meal price.
Benefits
- Improved quality and healthiness of meals.
- Improved behaviour of the children.
- A dramatic increase in uptake of the school meals service which results in
- A more cost effective service
- Greater staff satisfaction and retention
Lessons learned
- Parents and children must be involved in deciding the school meals policy
- A quality school meal including local produce does not have to be more costly.
- The true cost of a cheap, highly processed school meal service can be very high - researches showing evidence of poor behaviour and educational performance.
- Chips, beans and processed food are for the convenient for central supply services but not what children want. The Devon Food Links research found that boys would rather have more hearty meals - cottage pie, stews etc. Girls would like salads and pasta dishes.
- Quality staff matter - short working hours and low rates of pay are a significant difficulty.
Page published: 1 May 2003