10. Sustainable school food procurement in England: when there is a will, there is a way

Abstract

This exploratory study is a part of a larger ESRC-funded PhD on sustainable school food and discusses the implications of the findings on sustainable food procurement in primary schools in England. Data were collected using a mixed methods approach: methods included a survey to 8 schools and semi-structured interviews with 15 key informants. Participants included parents, caterers, local producers, school heads and school food experts. Findings uncovered current food procurement (FP) practices in schools in England, where local, seasonal, organic and sustainable food procurement (SFP) is considered as an overly idealistic ambition. Local producers are marginalised and catering staff disempowered by the over reliance on large multi-national wholesale corporations and industrial pre-packaged foods. However, producers and school caterers expressed a growing interest in transforming school food. Schools could potentially be a lucrative market for local producers while school caterers are driven to inspire best practice. These findings have significant implications on public food procurement in the UK of which schools account for the largest share. Schools, caterers, and local food producers could collaborate to initiate a dynamic school food procurement system aimed at shortening food chains, empowering kitchen staff and rewarding local and organic growers. Such a synergy could improve both health and sustainability standards of school food in England.