In a post-COVID-19 world, providing free school meals should be more of a priority than ever before, because it helps our society to build back better. Effective school food programmes can help our children not only during the first 1,000 days of their lives, but also the next 7,000 days on their journey toward adulthood. And we've heard this fact previously from Luke Fletcher, but I will repeat something similar: research by the GENIUS School Food Network undertaken in 2020 shows that the quality of diet during childhood has an impact on the development of young people. It impacts on their educational attainment and their health and well-being for the future, and also influences their diet and the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer later in life. We therefore must have effective and sustainable ways of helping young people, particularly in socioeconomic deprived areas, in accessing a better diet. 

But in addition to this, Llywydd, there are social, economic and environmental benefits, too. Professor Roberta Sonnino of Cardiff University noted that public procurement is one of the most powerful tools available to governments in the development of sustainable food economies. The procurement of food is a huge percentage of our GDP—some 13 to 14 per cent, usually, in European nations. So, it's a golden opportunity for us to decide what kind of food markets we want to create, for whom, and how. Ensuring that the Government, local authorities, and other organisations purchased food that is grown locally for free school meals would strengthen the local economy, too. Supporting the local food economy could also bring economic and environmental benefits. The benefits include using farmland to grow vegetables, training the next generation of farmers to be growers as well as food producers, and particularly producers of quality meat. We can create high-quality jobs by producing, processing and selling food locally. This would boost local economies and would ensure that every pound stays local.

Listen to this data: the public sector contributes significantly to expenditure on food and drink in Wales—£78 million per annum, according to the auditor general. Imagine the difference that £78 million could make to our communities if the whole procurement budget were spent in Wales on Welsh produce. Recent research by the New Economics Foundation demonstrates that investing £1 in local procurement projects gives you an added value of £3 in social, economic and environmental benefits.