FOOD grown locally will soon be taking pride of place on school dinner plates, council bosses have pledged.

Both Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council have promised to increase the amount of food sourced locally for school meals.

Today farmers leaders welcomed the announcement, while one Ribble Valley businesswoman revealed how supplying other public sector industries had kept her firm going.

As well as helping the local economy, some doctors argue that locally-produced food is good for pupils' health.

Eating locally-grown honey, for example, can reduce the chance of suffering from hayfever because it builds up tolerance to local pollen, according to scientific studies.

A spokesman for the National Farmers' Union said: "We are keen to work with schools to make sure that as much food as possible is sourced locally.

"The benefits are there for the community, the school and the pupils in terms of them getting good-quality food locally."

Eileen Forshaw, from the Little Town Dairy near Longridge, said her company regularly tried to get products such as yoghurts snapped up by schools.

Some schools buy in their lunch service from councils, while others run it themselves.

Eileen said: "In the mid-1980s, when the milk quotas came round, we found ourselves producing far more than we were supposed to so we sold it to Royal Preston Hospital.

"It helped us survive and councils doing more to buy locally will help a lot of other farms which have had to diversify."

Kath Baron, catering services manager at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "Fifty per cent of fruit and veg is already sourced locally year round, as are yoghurts. We are keen to develop this further."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Commercial Services, which provides catering for many schools, said: "We are committed to using as much locally-produced food as possible. All our fresh and baked potatoes and much of our fresh salad vegetables are grown in Lancashire."