☛ Want the latest procurement and supply chain news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Supply Management Daily
15 November 2011 | Adam Leach
The Countryside Alliance Foundation is calling on the government to implement
buying standards that prompt schools to buy British food.
The call was made after the
foundation discovered, through a Freedom of Information Act request, that just
60 of 172 Local Education Authorities (LEAs) know the country of origin for the
food they purchase. Of those who do track it, an average of 61 per cent of the
food they buy is British.
Alice Barnard, chief executive of
the Countryside Alliance Foundation, said: “When times are tough, too often the
public sector turns to foreign suppliers for cheap goods. But if more schools
looked to local producers to fill their food needs, they would...put taxpayers’
money back into the local economy.
“We’re urging the government to
extend their buying standards guidance to schools to ensure parents, pupils,
producers and taxpayers are getting the most value from their Local Education
Authority.”
In May, a poll carried out by
YouGov for the Countryside Alliance of more than 2,799 British adults found 61
per cent believed schools should be made to buy British food, even if it
increases costs.
Of the LEAs that track the buying
of British food, there was a wide variety in the proportions purchased. The
data showed that, for example, 21 per cent of the food bought by Surrey LEA was
British compared with 93 per cent in Cumbria. Between 2008 and 2010 the
proportion of British food bought by the Gloucestershire LEA rose from 60 to 85
per cent.
