Leeds school breakfast scheme to be rolled out internationally
It's hoped a Leeds project that feeds children breakfast with food that was heading for the landfill will eventually be rolled out into every primary school in the country.
It's hoped a Leeds project that feeds children breakfast with food that was heading for the landfill will eventually be rolled out into every primary school in the country.
Fuel for School intercepts produce that was going to be wasted and provides primary school kids with a healthy breakfast, while also teaching them how to prevent food waste.
As the project comes to the end of its first term, those behind it say they're now getting international interest.
"We reckon we could have hundreds and hundreds of schools across this region all signed up to Fuel for School," says Adam Smith, co-founder of The Real Junk Food Project which is behind the scheme.
"Just in Leeds alone, to feed every single child we know we'd have to divert 550 tonnes of food, so we could have huge environmental impacts on a lot of the major cities in the North if we're able to get this into schools as quickly as possible.
"We've had children turn up to school earlier so they can access the food, and we've been getting feedback from schools about their behaviour. We even had a set of children in one school who've decided to write a letter to the government about the shocking nature of food waste so they're really grasping what we're trying to achieve.
"One lady said that she was now able to buy a sterilising unit for her baby's bottles which meant she wasn't constantly stood next to a pan of boiling water. And her children are now eating more healthily because she's getting access to fruit and veg, and she's also saving money on energy bills and on food... it's just those things that you can't measure the impact it's having on people's lives."
Kevin Mackay is a teacher at Asquith Primary in Morley, which is one of those that has been running the programme, and told Radio Aire it's already making a huge difference:
"We didn't realise that hunger was a barrier to learning in this school. Because of the project we started asking children about their nutrition and it came out that actually, quite a large percentage were coming to school hungry.
"We've seen improvements in writing, behaviour, maths skills...it's engaged all of the class in some real-life learning and situations.
"We now have every child eating breakfast every morning, not necessarily through Fuel for School but through education. Life skills that they're learning from this go way beyond anything we're testing in schools in terms of maths, literacy and reading."
The scheme currently provides food including fruit, veg, herbs, bread, cereal, butter and non-perishables to more than 20 schools city wide. Since its official launch, more than nine tonnes of surplus food has been delivered. It's hoped that by teaching the next generation about the food system, we can create a more sustainable solution to a global issue.
The project is now expanding into cities in the North, including Wigan, Bradford, Sheffield and York with a view to then take the project nationally. Adam says he's even getting interest from countries around the world looking to adopt the scheme.
Fuel for School will feature on Hugh Fernley Whittingstall’s War on Waste Program this summer.