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LACA hails Government rethink on scrapping UIFSM

LACA Sally Shadrack UIFSM
National chair Sally Shadrack: Welcomes the move
23 Jun 2017
​Following the Government's Queens Speech, the Lead Association for CAtering in Education (LACA) welcomes the omission of the pledge to scrap universal infant free school meals (UIFSM), says national chair Sally Shadrack. She added: "This allows the Government to rethink a manifesto commitment which would be disastrous if carried out, for children, parents, schools and the school food industry alike.


"According to our own research, if this policy were to be enacted almost 17,000 school chefs would lose their jobs, and the huge taxpayer investment into school kitchens - £150million - would have gone to waste.
 
"More importantly, many of the most vulnerable in our society would no longer have a healthy, nutritional and balanced meal, which is often the only hot meal that some children have a day.
 
"LACA urgently call on the Government to rethink this manifesto commitment, make it clear they will not be taking it forward, and reflect on the comments made by the current Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rt. Hon Michael Gove who in 2014, called UIFSM a 'rarest of political treasures: a policy that has cross-party support'.”