The Whole School Food and Nutrition Programme is a Leicestershire County Council (LCC) commissioned service. This is known as the Food for Life Programme by schools. The aim of the programme is to:

• adopt a supportive healthy food culture, from sourcing fresh sustainable food to creating opportunities for social contact through food

• build confidence in children and their families in developing good food choices and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
• reflect food nutrition and healthy eating in every-day life in a school setting
• reach out beyond the school gates into the community with activities such as gardening becoming part of the school curriculum.

Due to limited funding, we are currently reviewing the service and proposing how the programme can be delivered in a different way.

The current offer provides officer support, online support and training to all primary schools in Leicestershire to achieve the ‘Food for Life’ bronze, silver and gold award packages. These awards are centred around four areas of development, which link to criteria and create an active framework for each school:

• Food Quality,
• Food Leadership and Food Culture,
• Food Education
• Community and partnerships

We are proposing to refine the offer, and as a minimum, we would like Schools to achieve Bronze-level. The proposed offer will include:

• an online training platform for all schools
• officer support targeted to schools with high levels of obesity only (for those schools with a lower level of obesity, this may result in a reduced level of support.
• removal of officer support for all schools to achieve the gold and silver awards, however, schools can still access these and work through them independently.