A leading chef who ran a meals-on-wheels service during the first lockdown is calling for an overhaul of food education in schools.
Barny Haughton has reacted with ‘disgust’ at what he views as sub-standard free school meals packages but hopes the outcry will be a pivotal moment for change.
The founder and director of the Square Food Foundation has spent more than two decades helping some of the most vulnerable in society to learn cooking skills.
The Bristol-based charity runs free classes for parents and children and delivered up to 400 meals a day for one primary school during Covid-19 restrictions between March and August.
But Mr Haughton believes that a rethink on food education in schools is needed, and should include children being given better knowledge of global food systems, which they can pass on to their own families in years to come.
School caterer Chartwells has been at the centre of the outcry over the standard of free school meals after a picture emerged of one of its packages. The company has apologised and said it will provide enhanced packages from this week.
Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford is among those now demanding that the Government carries out a wider overhaul of the way food poverty is addressed.
Mr Haughton said: ‘The first thing to say is that all school meals should be free.
‘There should be no discrimination between those who can and can’t afford a good meal at school. The food should also be of high quality, which it isn’t most of the time. These issues are starting to be addressed now Rashford has taken up the cause but they have been around for a long time.
‘We are justifiably outraged at children going without but the issues behind it are complex and systemic in society.
‘My mission is to get food education onto the curriculum as a serious subject across all age groups.’
While cooking and nutrition is part of the National Curriculum in England, Mr Haughton says it is not broad or imaginative enough.
He said: ‘It’s incredibly unimaginatively provided for in schools.
‘It’s not just about cooking, nutrition or poverty but about global food systems, resilient communities and resilient family life.
‘It’s also about climate change. It’s an incredibly exciting subject that children are instinctively fascinated by.
‘There’s no kid who isn’t interested in food in one way or another.
‘I’d love to see a GCSE in food studies, for instance. If we want healthy food systems we need a food-educated society.’
The father-of-five was an award-winning restaurateur before taking an interest in the catering at his children’s primary school in the mid-90s.
He began hosting cookery classes at his former restaurant, Quartier Vert, before moving the workshop to its own premises in the city and establishing it as the foundation in 2011.
The not-for-profit Community Incorporated Company then moved again to its current base at a community centre known as The Park, where homeless and unemployed people and adults at risk of isolation are among those taking part in sessions.
Responding to the first lockdown, the foundation provided food for children who qualified for free school meals at the Oasis Academy Connaught, which is in an area of high social deprivation in Knowle West in South Bristol.
Working with the FareShare food charity network, chefs produced up to 400 dishes a day at their base before using the school’s van to make deliveries.
Shepherds pies, stews, curries and macaroni cheese were among the meals which were provided with reheating instructions.
Mr Haughton said: ‘At the time Bristol was awash with incredible, talent chefs who had nothing to do.
‘We were able to open something up around food education and restaurants and make some amazing child and family-friendly food and deliver it to the families.
‘It was a journey through pretty much the whole of the last year.
‘The children were eating better food than they’d ever had at school.
‘That was the disgraceful thing about the response to the free school meals outcry, the caterers have had a lot of time to think about how to get it right. But that’s what you get with disconnected systems.’
Mr Haughton, 69, is part of a network of chefs who are pooling their resources during the hiatus in the hospitality industry.
The food champion, from Bristol, received an MBE for Services to the Community in the Queen’s Birthday Honours last October.
He said: ‘So much of Government policy in the last few years has been reactive to public outcries but I think they are missing a trick.
‘We now have an opportunity to be imaginative about the whole issue and address food education across all social sectors.
‘I would like to see community cooking programmes as well.’
With the free school meals debate reaching Parliament, Mr Haugton hopes the momentum will lead to a turning point.
‘People want to learn to cook and this could be an incredibly important moment, not just for children and people who are vulnerable, but for society as a whole,’ he said.
‘I’m hopeful that something really good could follow in terms of raising the bar in people’s lives.’
Metro.co.uk has approached the Department for Education for comment.
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