Creating a golden age for school food

The School Food Plan, published last summer and backed by the Secretary of State for Education, sets out a clear list of actions needed to improve food provision for millions of children nationwide. Many of these actions have already seen investment by government, the best known being the provision of free school meals for all key stage one pupils in England.
    
Practical cookery and food education is also firmly back on the curriculum, with an emphasis on providing pupils in key stages one, two and three with the skills to prepare a range of savory dishes and apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. This will be further supported by the new School Food Standards, which champion the use of fresh, sustainable and local produce in healthy school meals.
    
At the core of the plan was this vision, summed up in the original publication: “This plan is about good food and happiness. It is about the pleasures of growing, cooking and eating proper food. It is also about improving the academic performance of our children and the health of our nation.”

A strategy for the whole school    
Bringing growing and cooking together with good school food is a formula that has already proved to be successful in the many schools in England who are involved in the Food for Life Partnership (FFLP) award programme.
    
The FFLP approach is a simple one – to take a ‘whole school’ approach to food and engage pupils, parents, teachers, caterers and the local community in delivering positive change. There is a focus on ‘pupil voice’; that means that children are fully involved and agree their own priorities.
    
Schools are encouraged to use food as a way to improve the overall learning experience by making lunchtimes a positive feature of the day and enriching the curriculum with farm visits and practical cooking and growing.
    
Over 5,000 schools are now enrolled in the programme, which is supported by the Big Lottery fund and commissioned by Local
Authorities and regional public health teams to address key health and wellbeing priorities in their areas. It is led by the Soil Association, with support from partners Garden Organic, Focus on Food, Health Education Trust and Royal Society for Public Health.
    
The FFLP award structure provides a flexible framework which schools can build on based on their own circumstances and priorities. This school-by-school approach allows for some unique initiatives and results.

Delivering
Based on their track record, it is no surprise that the Food for Life Partnership sat on the expert panel that advised the School Food Plan and were cited throughout as an example of good practice. Their proven experience in improving school food provision has led to their being named as one of two organisations, along with the Children’s Food Trust, tasked by the Department for Education to support 2,000 junior, middle and secondary schools with below-average take up to improve their meal numbers.
    
Not only can increased take up ensure the long-term viability of a school meal service, increasing access to good school food has the potential to kick-start a process of improving behaviour, attainment and attendance at school at the same time.
    
With the aim of supporting schools to access these benefits, the ‘Increase Your School Meal Take Up’ programme is being delivered by FFLP in the Midlands, North of England and London. Schools who meet the eligibility criteria in these three areas can apply to receive a free package of support worth over £2,000 consisting of the following: support from specialist regional staff; a tailored online action plan; up to six free training sessions for school leaders, cooks and caterers; support for cooks and caterers from the Soil Association Catering Mark Team; and a range of brand new resources.
    
To register for the programme, schools simply complete an online application form to confirm their eligibility. Once this has been approved, they will then be provided with a personalised online portal that guides them through areas they wish to improve and provides actions, resources and practical advice for doing so. This is supported by free training sessions and one-to-one support from regional staff with the aim of achieving and maintaining a five percentage point increase in take up.
    
If you wish to find out more details on the programme being delivered by the Children’s Food Trust please visit the organisation’s website. By accessing this support, you will join many others who are working to provide the good food which not only leads to healthier children, but also enables them to make the most of the opportunities that school provides them with.

Case study: Rhyl Primary School
Schools participating in the Food for Life Partnership are asked to grow organically and also to include organic food in their menus at Silver and Gold levels. Rhyl Primary School – a silver FFLP school – is a shining example of how this can be achieved, even in an inner-city environment.
    
Initially the school was unsure about whether they could meet the growing aspect of the Food for Life Partnership award given that theirs is an inner city school without a lot of land. However, using reclaimed materials to build some raised beds for the children to fill with soil and plant organic vegetables and herbs, they realised that they had transformed an old, unused car park into a brand new outdoor classroom which can produce around 3kg of salad a week.
    
Since then, the head teacher reports that the school garden is the highlight of the student’s week. Learning outdoors helps them to concentrate, even for longer sessions. Many of the quieter children become a lot less inhibited when learning outdoors, and growing their own food means that they are a lot more adventurous when it comes to trying something new – they are excited to taste their own creations.

Parental Engagement
Before joining the Food for Life Partnership, Rhyl Primary found it hard to engage many parents with the work of the school – in part due to different cultural interpretations of what going to school should be like.
    
However, since they began growing their own food, parents have become a lot more interested in the work that has been going on. This is especially due to the children’s pop-up after school stall, which sells traditional cultural ingredients such as lablab beans, coriander, and chillies to many of the Somalian and Bangladeshi parents. The stall is so popular that it sells out every week and encourages conversations between the parents and the school. It has also helped ensure the healthy behaviours the children are learning through FFLP to travel home.
    
Teacher Thomas Moggach summarises the benefits: “It really is amazing what you can do with a spare bit of land. We have seen a marked increase in children eating more fruit and veg, especially trying new foods. The growing has helped enormously as children will try anything they have grown themselves.”

Enterprise beyond the school gates
The school garden now produces enough food to allow them to create an enterprise selling their salad ingredients to local restaurants. This has allowed them to develop an excellent business sense, as well as develop a whole range of skills such picking, washing, and packing food, invoicing sales, and composting.
    
Rhyl Primary has also been adventurous in growing a rare Japanese herb called ‘Shisho’. They sell this to a local Japanese restaurant called Moshi Moshi who were delighted to be able to purchase the herb locally, as usually it has to be imported from Japan or Holland.
    
Thomas continues, “These enterprises have made our school very popular within the wider community, and they have also allowed our children to earn over £600 so far. This money belongs to them and they will decide how to use it when the time comes. We are so proud of what our school has achieved and the positive impact that it has had on our parents and community.”

Further information
www.foodforlife.org.uk