News

LACA (Local Authority Caterers Association) has issued a statement sharing the concerns raised by Jamie Oliver and England footballer, Steven Gerrard, who have called on the Government to fight obesity by putting cookery teaching in schools back on the national curriculum.

The pair joined forces with other figures in health and education to send a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting changes should be made to the national curriculum to allow children and young people to be taught how to prepare nutritious meals for themselves and their families.

In the letter they said they believed that all pupils aged from 4 – 14 years would benefit from food education.

Commenting on the call to action in the letter, Lynda Mitchell, LACA National Chair says: “LACA would like to congratulate Jamie, Steven Gerrard and all those concerned in joining forces on this issue and taking this action.

“It is so important that those whose opinions on obesity and child health are widely respected, stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are at the front line of food provision in this country for children and young people.

“School meal providers nationwide have been urging Government of the need to increase food education and cookery lessons in schools for years.

“There have been several generations of parents now who have missed out on cookery education at school and as a result, their children are not familiar with many foods or know where they come from.

“The availability of fast food or prepared meals combined with a sedentary lifestyle makes for a generation of children at great risk from obesity and health issues in the future.

“Where schools and caterers have tried to educate children and young people about different foods and who have run cookery clubs, awareness of healthy eating has increased and better food choices are being made at lunch times. This then, hopefully, extends beyond school as well.

“As the Department for Education (DfE) has so rightly said in its response to the news of the joint letter, it is absolutely vital that, as part of the process of improving the eating habits of children and young people and their knowledge of food and how to cook it, all maintained schools should continue to meet the Nutritional Standards for school meals.

“This, then, is why the Government should put its money where its mouth is and ensure that one set of Nutritional Standards applies to ALL schools and that includes Academies and Free Schools.”