Free school food in Wales should be ‘healthy’

Free school food in Wales should be “more cost -effective, healthy and more climate friendly”, a major academic.

Kevin Morgan, Professor at Cardiff University School of Geography also said that Wales was a “long way” that was fully capable of local food sources in schools.

All primary school children are eligible for free school food in Wales. Families of older children can also apply for free school food with eligibility based on domestic income.

The Welsh government said it was working closely with the councils to offer “best possible food in schools”.

Professor Morgan, who has previously written a book about food in schools, hospitals and jails, said that the quality of food being provided in Wales needs to be lifted.

He said, “We are the first and only UK nations to apply free school food in all primary schools. Wales has won international pladits to do so – but we need to increase the quality of that food,” he said. Sunday supplement of radio Wales,

“There is no good universal poor quality food.”

Professor Morgan also expressed concern about the ability of the source of “local food”.

“If we wanted to make a source of local food in schools yesterday, it could not be done, not at least because our horticulture area in Wales is so low,” he said.

“This is now one of the great opportunities before us, because we are promoting the demand side of things.

“You need to use that power of purchase, purchase budget to build that source of supply.”

Professor was speaking for nearly a decade since the construction of Morgan Future generation actWhich had a legal duty on public bodies to keep in mind the needs of future generations.

It was introduced by the then National Legislative Assembly for Wales in April 2015 and was seen by the United Nations as a land-drain.

“Free school food … is the best example of a tangible expression of the future generations Act,” said Professor Morgan.

He said that he believes that it was “a wonderful and admirable piece of law”, but said that it is “everything that is suffering in Wales” suffering from which he called “the gap between aspiration and delivery”.

He said, “We are asking local authorities and public bodies to take steps for this huge challenge, after the budget of about twenty years of penance, where their ability has been hollowed out,” he said.

Welsh Sarkar said: “We want the best school food offers in Britain to give our children the best start for life.

“We are working closely with our local authorities to offer the best possible food in schools. Next year we are updating and improving our health rules.”