PUBLIC PROCUREMENT UPDATES
are brought to you by kind permission of Sustain:
the alliance for better food and farming www.sustainweb.org
Chips, love?
Public sector food procurement is currently high up on the political agenda following the recent article by the Prime Minister in the Observer and the launch by Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Education, on 21 March of the Children's Mini-manifesto", including: (1) greater emphasis on nutrition; (2) the new schools refurbishment programme to include improvements to kitchen and dining areas; and (3) better training for catering staff. Grants are to be available to schools from September for three years to help develop whole school approaches to food. Ruth Kelly's speech at: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schoolmeals/story/0,15643,1442756,00.html
Commentators (including Sustain and Soil Association) are anxious that the plans are lacking in detail and are raising questions about investment in food and infrastructure and for training of catering staff (the Scottish Executive has invested £63m in improving school meals north of the border where average spend on ingredients for meals in Scotland is 66p in primary schools and 72p in secondary schools- see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4393263.stm) Improvements in nutritional standards are vague as yet and the governemnt is being criticised for a lack of urgency: improved nutritional standards will not be implemented for another 18 months. Current nutritional standards are not effective.
Interestingly, while Ruth Kelly supports kitchen re-fits in schools, many new hospitals may be fitted with regeneration kitchens although traditional cooking kitchens would make cooking using fresh ingredients easier. The Centre for Public Policy Seminars 21st March conference on better public food featuring Loyd Grosman, included strong support of the nutritional integrity of regenerated food by some academics and dieticians. Join that up.
Sustainable Development Strategy
On 7th March the Prime Minister launched the UK Sustainable Development Stategy Securing the Future http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/publications/uk-strategy/uk-strategy-2005.htm
Of especial interest will be Chapter 3 which headlines that over a fifth greenhouse gas emmissions are down to the food system (the National Audit Office puts this at over 40% by having a broader view of the impact). A central thrust is the need to better understand patterns of food consumption in order to influence consumer choice. You read it here first.
The document also outlines the establishment of a Sustainable Procurement Task Force: "The Government will appoint in Spring 2005 a business-led Sustainable Procurement Task Force to develop a national action plan for Sustainable Procurement across the public sector by April 2006. The Task Force will build on the work of other bodies active in this field, including the Sustainable Development Commission, the Sustainable Procurement Group and the Strategic Supply-Chain Group." This relates to all procured goods, not just food.
Eastern SPICE
East Anglia Food Link have published the provisional findings to date of the SPICE (Sustainable Procurement in the Eastern Counties) project on the EAFL website at http://www.eafl.org.uk/SPICE. The write-up covers the players, the supply chains and the issues. EAFL welcome feedback on any of my comments, or on what may have been missed. Contact Tully Wakeman: tully@eafl.org.uk
Sweden and Denmark keep organic costs down
Relatively low Swedish prices of organic products can be seen as a consequence of a well working distribution, well established relations with the large retailers and high quality products. So finds a new report from the SLI, Swedish Institute for Food and Agricultural Economics, that concludes prices for high quality foods - a clear barrier to consumer purchases - can be brought down, by engaging large retailers and by developing the logistics. In Sweden and in Denmark the situation is similar. Prices differ between products, but the average prices correlate. Source: http://foodnavigator.com/news/printNewsBis.asp?id=58413
PUBLICATIONS
Tool]kit Bags
1) Defra will accept consultation reposnes on the final draft of its Catering Services and Food Procurement Toolkit up on the web - http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/sustain/procurement/tools.htm until 29th April.
2) On 30th March, the Department of Health launched the Food in Schools Toolkit. The Toolkit is designed to support, guide and inspire schools in taking a 'whole-school' approach to healthy eating and drinking with the help of key learnings from 300 schools who took part in the pilots. The launch of the Toolkit was part of a wider announcement by the Education Secretary of State where schools are being encouraged to spend at least 50p per child on food ingredients as part of a £280 million package to transform the quality of school meals. www.foodinschools.org
EVENTS
Proceedings of National Food Suppliers Conference - 7 March
Defra have put the proceedings of the conference on the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative web site at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/sustain/procurement/awareness.htm. Feel free to use the details of the proceedings and information on the PSFPI web site to help raise awareness. If you have a good story to report - please send Defra a case study. Details at:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/sustain/procurement/casestudies/index.htm
North East procurement lessons - 18th April
North East Land Links (NELL), working with Northumberland County Council and the New Economics Foundation have been working together to explore opportunities for more sustainable food procurement practices through the council. Changes of procurement process included:
- breaking up tenders - eg milk into 7 geographical lots
- changing the weighting of price vs quality in the tender evaluation so it's now 60% quality, 40% price (rather than vice-versa)
- writing sustainability criteria into the definition of quality
With very few exceptions, the companies which won the tenders were the ones which had them previously. For more details contact Janine Ogilvie at North East Land Links janine@gncf.org.uk
Full results of the study, supported by Business Link, will be presented an event at Alnwick Castle on 18th April. Contact Barry Mitchell bamitchel@northumberland.gov.uk
North East Land Links are the regional lead on public procurement for the North East and are currently working on a simple standard tender document. The documents are being produced as part of a pilot project with Darlington Council and NHS Trust. NELL are working on a range of projects that explore opportunities for developing sustainable procurement in the North East region and have hosted two regional event to look at these issues recently. It was decided at the event in February to form a regional working group to focus on specific issues on implementing sustainable procurement and take action, NELL will facilitate the group and undertake work arising. Contact janine.ogilvie@necf.org.uk
Met going green
On 6th April, London Food Link held a seminar for the Metropolitan Police (which serves 10 million meals a year) on developing a Sustainable Food Procurement Policy. The Metropolitan Police Environmental Strategy currently includes an objective for sustainable procurement, and the seminar enabled this to be developed further for food. A second seminar is planned for the end of April for the Met’s current food suppliers. For details contact Emma Hockridge emma@sustainweb.org
compiled by Daniel Keech, Sustainable Food Chains
Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
www.sustainweb.org
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EAT WELL, EAT FRESH AND EAT SLOWLY