School Meals Are 'Soft Target' for Cuts ; School Meals Are 'Soft Target' for Spending Cuts

Summary

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THE age of austerity could end the revolution in locally-sourced and healthy school meals, Wales' leading expert in the field warns today. In a case of history repeating itself, Professor Kevin Morgan today warns that cuts to public spending ordered by the Westminster Government could have as devastating an impact on school meals as Margaret Thatcher's reforms of the 1980s. The school meals campaigner and reformer, writing in the Western Mail today, said the service could be a soft target for councils looking to save millions of pounds. This could result in school meals, based on cheap, nutritionally-bereft foods, becoming the preserve of the "poorest of the poor" rather than being a health-promoting service available to all. Prof Morgan, who is based at Cardiff University, said: "The school food revolution, which aims to create a healthier diet for children, a more localised food economy and a more sustainable food system, was beginning to show some real progress, especially in deprived parts of the country where health gains are hard to secure.

"However, these hard-won little victories are now under threat because severe public expenditure cuts are forcing local authorities to seriously consider their school food options." And he added: "If the school food service is not viewed and valued differently, especially by central and local government, it is not too fanciful to suggest there is no viable future for it other than as a rump provider of free school meals. "In that event, the school meals service would become a highly stigmatised service, which is the preserve of the poorest of the poor, the exact opposite of what it should be - a health-promoting service for all." Just under half of all primary school children and 40% of secondary school pupils in Wales currently have school meals. This is higher than in England but lower that the 55% to 60% level at which school meals services break even and become self financing. Prof Morgan said the vast majority of local authority caterers in Wales are operating at a deficit - the average subsidy of a primary school meal inWales in 2009 was 95p.

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School Meals Are 'Soft Target' for Cuts ; School Meals Are 'Soft Target' for Spending Cuts

Cost-cutting councils could be tempted to outsource the school meals services altogether, as has been sugges...

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