Only 16% of school food in Moray is sourced from Scotland
Moray MP Douglas Ross has expressed disappointment that only 16 per cent of food served in Moray’s schools is sourced from Scotland. His comments follow the release of information which shows that Scotland Excel, the shared national procurement service, spends just 16 percent of its budget in Moray for school food on food sourced in Scotland.
Douglas said: “These figures are very disappointing. You would expect an agricultural area like Moray in the North of Scotland to source a much higher proportion of its school food locally. Over 80% of the food we give our schoolchildren is grown or reared outside Scotland. If you also take into account the amount of food that is processed in Scotland rather than grown here, Moray is actually below average for Scottish local authorities, with a figure of 24% while for Scotland overall it is 31%.”
Douglas, who is a former dairyman with a longstanding interest in agriculture, added: “I really think we should be doing a lot better than. Farming is a very important part of Moray’s economy and our products are second to none. I hope that Moray Council looks at these figures and explores ways in which it can increase the amount of locally sourced produce that ends up on the plates in our school dining halls.”
Backing up Douglas’s call for action, Councillor Tim Eagle (Buckie ward, Conservative), said, “I plan to refer these figures to the Council’s Audit and Scrutiny Committee. We surely can improve our performance. We owe it to our farmers and our children to seek local produce at every opportunity rather than having food travelling thousands of miles with all that implies for the environment.”