Annabel Karmel joins LACA, and The School Food Plan to launch small school pilot

24 Apr 2013

The government’s school food advisers have enlisted children’s food expert Annabel Karmel MBE, to help develop a food programme that will enable small schools in rural areas to deliver tasty, nutritious food without losing money.

Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, co-Founders of Leon Restaurants, are creating a plan, to be released in early Summer 2013, to help improve school food in the UK. They have announced the launch of a Small Schools Pilot, with the help of Annabel Karmel, The Local Authority Catering Association and an alliance of other public and private sector bodies, which will aim to develop a scalable a model that:

• delivers great tasting and healthy hot lunches that children love
• at a cost of under £2 per lunch
• to schools with a take up of under 100 pupils and breaks even
• that could be applicable nationally

Henry Dimbleby said:

Schools with a take up of under 100 people struggle to break even. In many cases they make significant losses. If this is not resolved there is a risk that many schools will stop providing hot meals altogether. The small schools pilot will show how we can provide good quality, nutritious and tasty food in a cost effective way, even in an area with small schools that struggle to reach that 100 figure. We said from the outset that if there were things that needed to be done we wouldn’t wait until we published the plan to start doing them. This is an example of one of those quick wins.

The pilot will be delivered by a public/private sector alliance led by the School Food Plan. The following have volunteered to lead specific areas:

• LACA (formerly Local Authority Caterers Association), which will oversee implementation in schools
• Annabel Karmel, who will develop a series of tasty, nutritious and cost-effective menus
• Brakes, which will act as lead food supplier
• Catering Equipment Distributors Association, which will supply kitchen equipment

Anne Bull, LACA National Chair, said:

I am pleased that LACA will be actively involved and be able to use the knowledge and expertise it has to help in the small school pilot. The small schools sometimes are overlooked, but it is as important in these schools as it is in all schools, that children and young people have equality in accessing healthy nutritious food.

The model will be developed during the summer term 2013 and be piloted across a region in the autumn term 2013.