With Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners back on the menu, the issue of food in schools has been thrust into media and public awareness once more. Most shocking of the stories so far has been the one about parents feeding children fish and chips, fizzy drinks and junk food through the fence of a Rotherham School because their children didn’t like the school’s new, healthy meals.

The first, obvious reaction to this is one of disgust and despair. What kind of a sick state is our society in when parents are going this far out of their way to make sure their children eat unhealthy food? There are many words one could use to describe these sorts of people, many of which are probably in your mind, none of which would be appropriate to print here.

All sorts of excuses have been offered – ‘they didn’t like the choice on the school menu’ – ‘they didn’t like the quality of the food’ etc – all of which are, frankly, pathetic, but while they are pathetic, and should be treated as such, this doesn’t mean that the parents are the only culprits of the piece. Quality is an issue here. The parents clearly demonstrate that they don’t have the faintest clue about quality if they see junk food as a better alternative to anything at all, so that invalidates their argument, but anyone who has seen the average school meal will know that it’s fair to say that quality isn’t exactly something that school catering outfits understand either.

Taking the fat out of something, or serving the same old rubbish, followed by fruit, doesn’t translate into good-quality, healthy food. Were that the case, the choice on the menu might as well be no-fat cardboard or a family bucket of fried chicken, with an apple. Sadly, the truth is that school food is, more often that not, utterly uninspiring and, at very best, of little nutritional consequence. That’s not just a shame and it’s not just an opportunity missed. It’s a disgrace.

By Ant Davison.

Our recent story on apples has highlighted to me that if supermarkets maintain their current measure of success and business practices they will find it very difficult to stock locally produced food.

The big chains judge individual supermarkets by availability and slippage. This means they must have about 95 per cent of products available on the shelves at all times and at the same time must not waste (slip) more than about 8 per cent.

In the case of apples, this means that buyers must plan ahead and buy foreign, to make sure their stores have apples all through the year. If English apples are ready early, buyers are not interested as they still have foreign commitments. Early English apples also have low shelf life meaning more waste, especially after taking time through the distribution system.

Many supermarkets have, at last, recognised the growing demand for local and now say they have a local sourcing policy. Many are buying produce direct from farmers but none are attempting to reconnect producers with consumers.

This is what we think is crucial to improving the food we eat. Reconnection means communication. Farmers finding out what local consumers want and growing a wider range of produce and consumers learning about food.

This is why Farmers Markets are so popular, despite their inconvenience. We are not sure how to deal with this problem. As so many potential customers go to supermarkets, should we work with them or try to provide an alternative.

The answer, I think, is both. Many people are changing their shopping habits and buying some of their food from local bakeries, butchers farmers markets and farm shops. They are finding that it is not as difficult as they thought and that in many cases it is cheaper. BigBarn helps people find local produce.

For those that still visit the supermarket we have been trying to persuade the ‘big 4′ to have a local food section run by local farmers like a mini farmers market. As we have insisted that the farmers should take 80% of the retail price our idea has not been popular. (One buyer, 2 years ago, looked at me as though I was mad.)

I would like to see every supermarket have a local food section with one of the farmers in store helping and talking to customers. The farmers should take it in turns and, once organised in this way, deliver their food to other consumers like schools, restaurants and smaller shops.

We are trying to make this happen and the buyer who thought I was mad 2 years ago is realising that, maybe, I’m not.

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