Celebrated Chef Brian Turner Dishes Out Prestigious Food Award To Schools Across The Country
Chef/restaurateur Brian Turner is presenting the prestigious Gold and Silver Food for Life Partnership Awards to 19 schools from across the country for their commitment to transforming school food culture on Wednesday 7 December. The award ceremony takes place at 15 Hatfields, an environmentally friendly conference centre in London .
Brian Turner said: “These schools have proved that they are trailblazers for healthy food and practical food education in their regions. Children involved with the Food for Life Partnership are cooking, growing organic fruit and veg, visiting farms, sitting together to eat a good, wholesome meal, and they’re taking these skills back to their families and the local community. What better way to tackle obesity and other health issues as well as social cohesion? Food for Life Partnership schools are paving the way for a positive future for these children.”
The award means that the schools serves school meals on plates, not flight trays, and has a range of locally sourced and organic items on the school menu. Pupils and parents are involved in planning improvements to school menus and the dining experience, and every pupil has the opportunity to visit a farm, cook and grow food during his or her time at school. The wider community is also involved in food education via food-themed events.
Jeanette Orrey, School Meals Policy Advisor for the Food for Life Partnership, emphasises how much has happened in the school food arena since she co-founded the original school food campaign with the Soil Association back in 2003. She says:
“When we started campaigning for better school dinners we had no idea that more than 4,200 schools would have joined the campaign, and not only improve their school dinners, but also to embrace food education. We must make sure that all this good work carries on and that the Coalition Government makes a good, healthy and sustainable food culture in schools and their communities a priority.”
Evaluation of the Food for Life Partnership by the University of the West of England and Cardiff University released in May has found that schools taking part in the programme were rated more highly by Ofsted inspectors. It also shows that pupils’ interest in healthy and sustainable foods was having a “nudge effect” on their eating habits and their parents’ shopping habits.
The Food for Life Partnership is a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture. Together we are revolutionising school meals, reconnecting young people with farms and inspiring families to cook and grow food.
The initiative is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led by the Soil Association, bringing together the practical expertise of the Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust.
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