Food charity helps Cumbrian schools with tight budgets

CUMBRIAN schools feeling the pinch of tight school budgets have received help from a food charity.

Recycling Lives has been delivering meals to pupils at Orton CE Primary and Shap CE Primary via its Food Redistribution Centre.

The distribution centre is a partnership with national charity, Fareshare, which provides fresh, in-date food to groups such as children’s breakfast clubs, homeless shelters and day centres.

School budgets are incredibly tight so reducing the cost of food into school has allowed us to channel funds to different areas such as staffing for teaching.

The schools are part of the Food Redistribution Centre’s network of 100 community food members (CFMs), through which it distributes the equivalent of 13,000 meals a week to feed around 5,000 people.

Anne Maud, headteacher at Shap CE Primary, said: “We have only just started using the Centre but have already seen an impact for all our children. Our junior children now also enjoy fresh fruit at playtimes, as the government only provides free fruit for infants.