25 July 2007, 14:15 PM
  • By the autumn, 40% of the menu for the county's 250 primary and secondary schools served by Cambridgeshire Catering Services (CCS) will be made with food sourced from farms and food companies from the east of England and surrounding area.

This is the result of a high profile operation to track down fresh and prepared products from local suppliers. These efforts mean there has never been so much local food in the county’s school meals in the past 20 years, and the amount is more than double what it was two years ago.

Food is delivered either directly to the 140 schools that cook completely from scratch, or to the Cambridgeshire Catering Service, which produces dishes cooked by traditional methods to the 110 smaller school that have limited kitchen facilities.

Hilary Witt, head of CSS, says, “We use traditional recipes and we cook in a traditional way. We provide our schools with an affordable service for locally sourced meals, delivered to the children with consistent quality.”

Marie Francis, regional food and drink champion, adds, “This region has a huge variety of fine local produce. What has been achieved in Cambridgeshire is an excellent example to other local authorities. The children can enjoy tasty school dinners made from quality, locally produced food. At the same time their carbon footprint is smaller than most because the number of miles the food on their plates has travelled is as low as possible.”

According to Tully Wakeman, director of East Anglia Food Link, local education authorities in Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are sourcing a total of around £1.3m of local and sustainable products every year for their schools.