News

Authority’s food strategy is boosting local economy

School food
A council in North East England says that its policy of using locally sourced food for school meals is giving the local economy a massive boost.

Gateshead Council’s school catering service spends £1.8 million on raw ingredients a year and buys as much of it locally as possible.

It believes that this is one of the reasons that uptake of school meals at Gateshead schools is rising. 

The school catering service currently serves lunch to around 10,000 pupils a day – the highest number since 2004.

Now the council has gone one step further and published a map to show parents and children exactly where the ingredients for their school dinners come from.

It shows, for instance, that every piece of fresh meat and poultry served by schools is supplied by a catering butcher who sources meat only from local farms.

Register now, read forever

Thank you for visiting SecEd and reading some of our content for professionals in secondary education. Register now for free to get unlimited access to all content.

What's included:

  • Unlimited access to news, best practice articles and podcast

  • New content and e-bulletins delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday

Register

Already have an account? Sign in here