Children's Food Trust

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Children's Food Trust
Children's Food Trust.png
Formation 2005
Legal status Charity
Purpose Works with childcare providers, schools, local authorities, community organisations and industry to improve the food that children eat
Location
Region served
 UK
Chair
 Rob Rees
Main organ
 Board
Affiliations The Prince's Trust[citation needed], Local Authority Catering Association[citation needed]
Website www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk

The Children's Food Trust (formerly the School Food Trust, renamed in 2012) is a charity in the United Kingdom that aims to protect every child's right to eat healthily.[1]

History

The Trust was created as a non-departmental public body in 2005 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), following celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's critique of the nutritional quality of school meals in his TV documentary Jamie's School Dinners and the recommendations of the School Meals Review Panel.[2] It had been found that standards of school food were low, with average ingredient spend per meal before 2005 at secondary schools at around 40p. Childhood obesity is a problem in the UK in specific demographic groups (see National Statistics Socio-economic Classification), with some medical professionals predicting that today's youngsters will have a lower life expectancy than their parents with problems with diabetes and heart disease.

In April 2007, the Trust also became a registered charity.[3] In October 2011, the Trust officially ceased to be an NDPB,[4] expanding its work both as a charity and by trading its services through a new community interest company, as the Children's Food Trust.

The Trust now works beyond education settings as a source of advice and support for any organisation providing food to children or wanting to improve healthy cooking skills, with a dedicated research programme.

Structure

The trust is structured as a company limited by guarantee. It was initially governed by a board appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, and managed on a day-to-day basis by an executive team. However, as part of the move away from being an arms length body of the Government the Trust has established an entirely new board.[5] Dame Suzi Leather was appointed as the first Chair of the trust, but resigned a year later when appointed as Chair of the Charity Commission. Baroness Maggie Jones was appointed interim Chair in August 2006.[6]

In November 2006, Prue Leith was named as the chair.[7][8]

In January 2010, Rob Rees was named as the chair after Prue Leith retired her position.[9][10]

Research Programme

The Trust's research programme is led by Dr Michael Nelson, Kings College. Publications include:

  • Annual surveys on the take up and provision of school meals in England[11]
  • Assessments of the impact of nutritional standards for school meals in England on provision and consumption[12]
  • Research relating to food provision in early years settings in England[13]
  • Nutritional comparison of school meals and packed lunches[14]
  • Evidence on how better school food links with improving diet and obesity [15]
  • School food and behaviour studies - [16] - how better food at lunchtime improves children's performance in the afternoon

A summary of the Trust's research can be downloaded.

Funding

The trust was initially funded by a £15 million grant from the Department for Education and Skills, and has been awarded in partnership with organisations including The Prince's Trust, Business in the Community, Magic Outcomes and the Improvement Foundation, £20 million additional funding from the Big Lottery Fund for a network of school children's cookery clubs called Let's Get Cooking.[17][18]

Campaigns

Let’s Get Cooking

The Let's Get Cooking programme was created with the aim of establishing a national network of clubs to give children and non-cooking parents of all ages the skills and confidence to cook nutritious and tasty meals from scratch. It has gone on to create more than 5,000 clubs in England, reaching more than 2.5 million people with healthy cooking activities. An evaluation of its impact was published in 2012, finding that more than half of participants (58%) reported to eat a healthier diet after taking part and 92% reporting to use their new skills again at home.[19] The programme is growing in scope to provide training, support and resources for setting up and running healthy cooking activities for people of all ages.

School FEAST Network

Initially, Regional Training Kitchens were set up to train school cooks in a centralised (with efficiencies of scale) method, which were then named Regional Training Centres. A new name was needed, so it was decided to call these regional training centres the School Food Excellence And Skills Training – with the acronym School FEAST. These can train cooks to the standard of Level 2 NVQ in Professional Cookery and also Food Processing and Cooking.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ School Meals Review Panel
  3. ↑ Children's Food Trust, Registered Charity no. 1118995 at the Charity Commission
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Children's Food Trust annual school meals surveys
  12. ↑ The impact of nutritional standards for school meals in England
  13. ↑ Findings of the Advisory Panel for Early Years Food and Nutrition
  14. ↑ School meals versus packed lunches in England
  15. ↑ links with improving diet and tackling obesity
  16. ↑ School food and behaviour studies
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Let's Get Cooking evaluation, 2012

External links

News items

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