The government has cut a number of food-industry related quangos, including the School Food Trust, ahead of its comprehensive spending review on October 20.
Campaigns are underway to counter threats to healthy school meals provision, with the Labour opposition looking to co-ordinate cross-party initiatives on the issue.
The School Food Trust (SFT) and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) are both on a list of quangos facing the axe, according to a leaked report published in today's Telegraph.
Concerns over safeguarding healthy school meals are growing as the government plans to alter funding for consumer health campaign Change4Life, limit free school meals for primary school children from poor backgrounds and end the School Lunch Grant.
School meal take-up might be back on the rise in secondary schools but still appears to be well below where it was before Jamie’s School Dinners and the School Food Trust (SFT) arrived on the scene five years ago.
The new coalition government will cut £270m from regional development agencies (RDAs), cut DEFRA's budget by £162m and slash £600m from quangos this year as it embarks on a radical cost-cutting drive to save £6.2bn.
The implementation of new nutrient-based standards in secondary schools in September will not drive caterers to the brink of collapse, the boss of the School Food Trust (SFT) has insisted.
