Background

In September 2006, the former Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson, announced The Five Point Plan, a package of measures to improve school food and tackle childhood obesity.

This package included a £2 million Capital Funding Grant to establish a network of Regional Training Kitchens/Centres to act as centres of excellence. These kitchens/centres would provide a readily accessible supply of high quality training and ensure that the school workforce is motivated and encouraged to take up the training offered.

The School Food Trust was commissioned, by the Department for Education and Skills, to lead in the implementation of this proposal. 

Since October 2006, the School Food Trust has:

• convened a Training and Qualification Steering Group of strategic partners to develop minimum criteria for School FEAST. The Steering Group developed the 'Core Offer' of training or qualifications each School FEAST centre and partnership has to provide;
• held a meeting of key delivery partners in January 2007 where the criteria for these centres was agreed;
• worked closely with partners to ensure that the School FEAST network has the greatest possible positive impact on the quality of provision and take-up of training by the school food workforce;
• established a pathfinder regional training centre at the Royal Agricultural College to test the criteria in a realistic setting and to advise on aspects of the business planning process;
• established links between the work of the School FEAST programme and People 1st, the Sector Skills Council for Hospitality and Catering, and
• developed the Business Plan process. The process enabled interested organisations to become a School FEAST centre or partnership.