National School Meals Week 2020 commences

National School Meals Week (NSMW) takes place this week - 9-13 November, and promotes school lunches and showcases the importance of school food to all stakeholders.

NSMW has added importance this year, given that school food has been disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some children are continuing to be away from the school environment due to isolation periods and, following the many months away from education in the spring/summer, many school caterers are still being asked to serve packed lunches in the classroom. Many schools continue to make different arrangements as everyone finds their way through what best works for them.

NSMW can help restart the conversation around the importance of nutritious hot school meals and hopefully support more children returning to school meals. An important point to make is that school catering staff, key workers in their own right, have been serving school food safely throughout the pandemic, including during the school holidays and, for that, the country as a whole is very grateful. They are at the heart of all that is happening now and so a day of NSMW is dedicated to them.

The five themes of this year's NSMW are as follows:

Monday, ‘Go meat free’. Choosing a vegetarian menu for the day not only has health benefits but also benefits the environment. We know many caterers are already promoting this once a week.

Tuesday ‘The School Meals Oscars’, a day of students’ favourite meals – where the menu items are the ‘star of the show’ – you can encourage parents and children to submit their favourite meal and dessert to be served at school.

Wednesday ‘National Roast Dinner Day’, The Soil Association – Food for Life are once again running this extremely popular event and we encourage school caterers to get behind it.

Thursday ‘The Great British School Lunch’ with support from ‘Love British Food’, we will encourage caterers to showcase a menu packed with British favourites, which have topped our polls so we know they will be popular. It’s so important to support our farmers, local businesses and reduce food miles to protect our environment.

Friday ‘THANK YOU KEY WORKERS!’ – We are asking all caterers to invite their local MP into a school for lunch where he/she will be asked to present a certificate to that catering team, representing all the catering staff in each constituency who have been heroes throughout the Covid pandemic.