Changing England's Eating Habits

What school cook wouldn’t want to make delicious, healthy school dinners with fresh, unprocessed ingredients? And what headteacher wouldn’t want their pupils to visit farms, grow food and cook it as part of their education? Unfortunately, a lack of support often means that this is just a dream for most headteachers and school cooks.

Improving the Food Culture

This is where the Food for Life Partnership comes into the picture. The Food for Life campaign works with schools across England to improve the food culture of the country by getting children growing vegetables, cooking, visiting farms and eating real, good food in school.

Through the Food for Life Partnership award scheme, schools are provided with a step-by-step framework, helping students and the wider community to get inspired about food, and enabling them to achieve Bronze, Silver and Gold Marks along the way.

Award Scheme

Bronze schools serve seasonal meals with 75% of dishes freshly prepared, and pupils and parents agree priorities for food in school via a School Nutrition Action Group.

The Gold Mark requires schools to be hubs of good food culture in their community, serve at least 75% freshly prepared, 50% local and 30% organic food. Every pupil learns to cook and has the opportunity to grow food, while a group of pupils are actively involved in the life of a local farm.

All schools in England can sign up to become a Food for Life Partnership school and get support and advice on how to achieve the Bronze, Silver or Gold awards.

Recognition

In December last year, the first Food for Life Partnership Bronze and Silver schools were presented with awards by HRH The Prince of Wales, who also presented Food for Life awards to leading caterers in February this year.

Sustainable Schools

But the Food for Life Partnership is not just about good food and awards. The programme also directly supports the National Framework for Sustainable Schools.

While it has an obvious fit with the Food and Drink gateway, the Food for Life Partnership Mark is, in fact, relevant to all eight sustainable schools doorways, as the award scheme requires schools to work with issues such as the climate footprint of food, food miles, local food procurement, composting, school garden development, the inclusion of pupils, parents and the local community, Fairtrade and eating within our global means.

So, whether you want your pupils to eat healthy, tasty, climate-friendly school dinners, get them to reconnect with real food through practical learning experiences, make your school more sustainable or develop a more creative curriculum, the Food for Life Partnership can cater for you.

Food for Life

The Food for Life Partnership is a 5-year Big Lottery-funded campaign. It is led by the Soil Association and brings together the practical expertise of three other food-focused charities; Garden Organic, Health Education Trust and Focus on Food Campaign.

For more information, please visit www.foodforlife.org.uk or contact the Food for Life Partnership on 0117 314 5180 or email fflp@foodforlife.org.uk