Soil Association wins £17m grant to fund work on better school food

The Soil Association (SA) and partners have won a £17m lottery grant, which will allow them to continue their work promoting better diets in schools.

The SA said the grant would give more than 150,000 pupils across England the chance to learn valuable cooking skills, start their own organic vegetable gardens and visit organic farms.

As part of Food for Life, which is a partnership between organisations including the SA and School Food Trust, support and training is also provided to help local authorities, commercial caterers and dinner ladies in working towards targets for the amount of processed, local and organic produce present in school meals.

Peter Melchett, policy director of the SA, said: “Big lottery funding is a huge boost to delivering healthy eating. There is little hope for our nation’s health and the global climate if children grow up unable to identify a carrot and thinking food starts life in the supermarket.”

Chef Jamie Oliver, who has campaigned about the state of school meals, said: “This is fantastic news and we are finally seeing radical change. Let’s get the funds out there quickly. It makes total sense for these great organisations to benefit this way from lottery money. Its another significant step forward to improve kids knowledge of food and where it comes from."

What does the future hold for school meals? >>
 
Jamie Oliver to front new TV show >>

Poorer kids reject new school menus >>

By Catherine Bennion-Pedley

E-mail your comments to Catherine Bennion-Pedley here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week - click here to subscribe and save 25%.