In 2006 Bath and North East Somerset carried out a review of their school meals service. They set targets for primary school meals which included:

• Increasing the use of fresh locally grown foods;
• Moving away from the use of processed foods;
• Reducing sugars, salt and additives in school meals, and cut out sweeteners entirely;
• Environmental and sustainability targets were also set, including:
  • Reduction in food miles: Reduces carbon emissions associated with transport
  • Reduction in transport costs: Locally purchased foods are more cost efficient
  • Sustaining the local economy: The use of local suppliers is in line with the Council’s Corporate Improvement Priorities.

Eleven companies were invited to tender. These tenders were evaluated against criteria of quality (value for money, quality, range of products, technical capacity and environmental and sustainability issues) and price to a ratio of 60:40.

Contracts were awarded to the following organisations, three of which are locally based:

John Sheppard Butchers is a family business based in Bristol. For this contract they are sourcing meat from a range of farms across the region. Bath District Farmers (BDF) is a group of 11 farmers to the south of Bath that have worked together to increase their capacity and market opportunities for several years. Neither John Sheppard Butchers nor BDF had tendered for supplying the Council before and took up support from South West Food and Drink and the English Farming and Food Partnership, in the form of a supplier seminar, and advice on writing their bids and meeting customer requirements such as quality assurance and health and safety.

Charles Tilley, Sales Executive, John Sheppard Butchers, comments: “The tender process was straightforward and any queries were answered with speed and clarity. As a company we are very pleased to be involved with a neighbouring local authority and believe that together we can contribute to the local economy.”

Jeremy Padfield, member of BDF, comments: “We are very pleased to have been awarded part of this contract and would certainly encourage other producers and farmer groups to step out and enter into a growing market that we believe has much potential for the future.”

BDF appointed an independent distributor to handle the deliveries on their behalf but may manage deliveries themselves in the future. They are keen to win further public sector catering contracts and have plans to extend their capacity by investigating the feasibility of processing their own milk and developing their existing butchery facilities. They have shown that local produce can be sourced at competitive prices and, in some cases, cheaper than from national suppliers. They believe that any price increases that may be experienced are far outweighed by improved quality, freshness, service, flexibility, good publicity and educational opportunities, such as farm visits for students.

B&NES Council were also key in assisting the process of enabling local suppliers to win the contract. In addition to the time spent on the contract specifications, they provided training on the use of fresh meat to some school kitchen staff and invested in some additional equipment in kitchens such as juicers and choppers. Prior to the new school meal contracts, B&NES Council had also supported a Food for Life pilot project, working with some of their schools looking at opportunities for organic and local food sourcing and education on wider food issues. 

Six months after the contracts to the new suppliers were awarded, Eddy Hale, Corporate Procurement Manager at the Council said: “We are delighted that three out of the four appointed suppliers are are local and that the quality of their products as well as their standards of service have more than met our expectations. In order to be fair to all companies bidding for our contracts we were unable to offer any direct advice to these local enterprises but it was good to be able to work with South West Food and Drink to ensure the right support, information and advice was available throughout the tender process.”

Janet Morris, catering manager at Broadlands Secondary School, when asked about how she was finding the new supplies, answered that she is: “Absolutely loving it. It’s really nice to be able to not take something out of the freezer that is pumped full of water. It’s a joy to cook, the best thing that B&NES has ever done.”

The outcome of this work is that the Council has achieved the following objectives:

• Increased use of fresh produce: a reduction in frozen food and a higher percentage of fresh food delivered more frequently;
• Increased use of locally produced foods: vegetables, fresh meat and dairy products are all now available from local producers;
• Increased meat quality: due diligence accreditation, improved management information and changes to specification has improved the quality of meat now being supplied;
• Increased proportion of "home-cooked" food: changes to menus have been made possible by improvements to the supply of better quality food which is now prepared in kitchens rather than being bought in pre-cooked.

All of these achievements are promoted to parents and students, for example the Summer 2007 Lunchtime newsletter provided details and quotes from Bath District Farmers and John Sheppard and includes the menu for the Summer term indicating which foods are locally sourced, which are homemade, which are organic and which have hidden vegetables.