We have been following the development of the School Food Trust (SFT) with a critical eye. So far we have reported on their extensive number of trustees (16), a number that gives it an almost unique ratio of 0.8 trustees for each member of staff (according to their organisational chart).
We have noted the lack of representation of major agricultural lobbies (with 20,000 members, the Soil Association is not a major rural body) as well as highlighting the SFT’s former recruitment agency (NRG) who thought it compulsory that candidates for civil service jobs should be voluntarily asked to disclose their sexuality (it is not). Luckily the SFT, who are still recruiting, seem to have decided that they no longer need NRG’s expertise and have taken the task in-house.
Our attempts to obtain an interview with Dame Suzi Leather and Judy Hargadon, are little advanced with the latest email from Justina Frost of Digital Public, the SFT’s PR agency saying, ‘The School Food Trust is slightly inundated with media coverage at present, so is pulling back from media and interview requests for the moment. Perhaps you could make contact again in August as they shall be gearing up for more interviews prior to the implementation of the school lunch standards in September’. This is a very unusual communications strategy, particularly for an agency whose remit had existed for years but whose lifeblood was the media campaign led by Jamie Oliver.
Perhaps the reason for their delay is that after an exhausting month, Ms Hargadon had to take two weeks holiday and Dame Suzi Leather is off to chair the Charities Commission. Whilst Dame Suzi undoubtedly brought great experience to the SFT, she and other high profile appointments (for example Richard Bowker at P4S) only seem to be committed to their educational roles for the short term (less than 12 months into a three-year appointment) and as soon as anything more interesting comes along they are off like a shot. Don’t bother about subscribing to the SFT’s e-Newsletter - we did, and so far have received not a sausage.
