Schools

How does it work currently?

School food is sourced by local authorities through framework contracts that include publicly-funded care homes and local parks.  There are differences between approaches, but most local authorities will manage the framework contracts for their whole area and then allow the units to choose suppliers and products from within those contracts to order from on a regular basis.  Some local authorities are very good at local sourcing and have even achieved Food For Life awards with Soil Association, but this is by no means the case for all of them.

Product development with local suppliers

One of two major products that Hampshire County Council still sources from outside the UK is Alaskan pollock, but they are actively looking for UK alternatives and tender this contract every year rather than the usual three. The pollock is used for fish fingers and the council won’t compromise on quality.  Katy Kelleher, Apprentice Buyer Food for Hampshire County Council, explains:  “Most fish fingers are made from minced fish, but we will only buy fish fingers made from fillet.  There is a big difference in taste and texture and we want to make sure our kids have the best. It has presented a problem sourcing it in the UK, but we are working with a supplier in Grimsby, who already makes gluten-free battered pollock for us, on developing a fillet fish finger as well.”  Similarly, their ice cream supplier, New Forest Ice Cream, had to become completely nut-free before they could supply Hampshire schools. 

The Lancashire County Council has long been working towards high nutritional standards and has developed a bespoke cheese with a local supplier that has lower salt and fat content.  They have also worked with a local high-end Lancashire yoghurt supplier, Ann Forshaw, on a range of yoghurts, which are lower in sugar.

Distribution through national suppliers

Both New Forest Ice Cream and Hampshire’s egg supplier, Fluffetts Farm, are distributed through Bidfood because Bidfood has the freezing capacity to store the thousands of pots of ice-cream required for schools and is travelling to the schools anyway.

Country Parks as an interesting way in to supplying schools via existing local authority contracts

Country parks can be an interesting stepping stone for further contracts within the local authority remit as their smaller volumes enable them to be more flexible and suppliers can piggy back on the Country Parks contract.  Suppliers need to build on the relationship however, as winning the tender does not mean they will be the only supplier for that product.  Berry’s Bakery in Lymington have been supplying the country parks in Hampshire for five years now and have just won the new contract, which she hopes she can build upon.  Lesley Berry says she was inspired by her father’s business which supplied councils for 40 years.  She could see how the public sector business had enabled her father’s business to grow, so despite just missing the tender and having to wait four years, she persisted and kept in contact with the council until the opportunity arose again.  As a small supplier they are SALSA accredited and benefited from the fact that Hampshire County Council recognises SALSA alongside BRC.  Lesley Berry is very grateful for the council business and adds, “anyone that pays you the way the council pays you is a bonus for any business.”

Distribution hubs and local food as a way of cycling money through the local economy

Lancashire County Council and their catering service see their role as trying to maintain as much value within the Lancashire economy as possible.  They aren’t looking at school food purely as a cost centre, they see it instead as an investment for the future, and one through which they can deliver considerable value without even waiting for the children to grow up.  For every pound Lancashire County Council spends on food, upwards of four pounds are generated within the Lancashire economy.

It was in the late 2000s that Lancashire County Council created their current sustainable procurement strategy which laid out their requirements towards GM ingredients, animal welfare, nutritional testing beyond the government recommended levels at the time.  They also started working with the Soil Association on their Food For Life Served Here (FFLSH) award. Around summer 2015 they achieved their FFLSH Silver Award despite being one of the largest council catering services in the UK.  They serve 65,000 meals a day across primary and secondary schools as well as care homes.  The catering service is also accredited to Sugarwise as a further commitment to positively influence childhood obesity and tooth decay.

According to Nigel Craine, Head of Schools and Residential Care Catering for Lancashire County Council:  “We have a long-standing relationship with a local fruit and veg supplier.  They have supplied the council since the 1944 Education Act required all LEAs to provide a midday school meal!  Over time we have expanded what we buy locally to include cooked farm-assured meats, lower salt and fat cheese, free-range eggs, fresh farm assured meat and poultry, yoghurts and organic milk, flour, rice and pasta.  These are then distributed through our fruit and vegetable supplier.”

“We have recently expanded the distribution hub principle to account for the inclusion of frozen and grocery goods and tendered for an expanded distribution hub that our fruit and vegetable supplier won.  This has and will continue to have the effect of driving out unnecessary heavy goods traffic and creating safer environments around schools.  Upwards of 3500 vehicles/week will have been removed from the roads in Lancashire, lowering harmful vehicle emissions and congestion.  It also gives us greater control over food packaging, placing focus on the use of type three or type five recyclable material.  Around 50% of the £11.5 million we spend annually on food is grown, produced or sourced in Lancashire.  Our objective is to see this figure continuing to increase and future strategies will include further improvements to the nutritional profile of the food we purchase as well as a target to build up a fleet of electric distribution vehicles.”