Kindling spent much of Tuesday 5th July at the Food For Life Partnership Northern Awards ceremony at Manchester Town Hall, where schools and caterers were acknowledged for their hard work to increase the uptake of healthy sustainable food.
In front of a hundred delegates, eleven schools from the North of England were congratulated for their fabulous work in transforming food culture in their schools and communities. We heard about the inspiring work going on across the North to reconnect young people with healthy food produced by local farmers.
Stefan Gates (writer and food celebrity - presently the star of Children's TV show Gastronuts) was on hand to present the awards.
Stefan Gates said: "These youngsters and their parents are celebrating good food and best of all it's giving them what will probably be some of the most enjoyable experiences of their school lives."
The Food for Life Partnership started in 2006 and finishes at the end of this year. It is a network of schools and communities committed to transforming our food culture with a programme of activities and support revolutionising school meals, reconnecting children and young people with where their food comes from, and inspiring families to grow and cook food.
With over 3,000 schools enrolled so far, with 200,000 children eating Food For Life accredited meals every day, the programme is having a huge impact, both on young people and local economies. For example, for every £1 invested in Food For Life menus, the social, economic and environmental returns for the local authority is £3.
Cheshire East , Oldham and Kirklees were some of the councils in the region winning awards for their progress on supplying local organic food, fair-trade drinks and sustainably sourced fish etc.. But for us, Oldham Council and their schools stole the show, winning Silver Catering Mark award.
The Kindling Trust was there to highlight our work with Manchester Fayre and Manchester's Food Futures to reduce the carbon impact of food purchases within Manchester and to promote the local organic growers we work with.
Kindling provided a display showing the location of our local farmers and samples of produce, including very popular strawberries and salad. There was a great interest in the produce our local farmers grow and our unique business model of establishing a co-operative of growers and buyers.
Our only disappointment was that Manchester Fayre nor any of Manchester's schools were up for an award - despite the commitment, hard work and passion from the many people we work with in the City.
The criteria for Food For Life schools.
Gold schools are hubs of good food culture in their community, actively involving parents and community groups in cooking and growing activites. School meals are at least 75% freshly prepared, 50% local and 30% organic, and more than 70% of pupils are choosing to eat school meals. Every pupil learns to cook and has the opportunity to grow food, and groups of pupils are actively involved in the life of a local farm.
Silver schools serve school meals on plates, not flight trays, and a range of locally sourced, free range and organic items are served and no fish from unsustainable sources is served. The school has a cooking club, and pupils get to cook with and eat the produce grown in the school growing area. Parents and the wider community get involved in food education via food-themed events.
Bronze schools serve seasonal school meals that are at least 75% freshly prepared by a well-trained school cook. Pupils and parents are involved in planning improvements to school menus and the dining experience via a school nutrition action group, boosting school meal take-up. Every pupil has the opportunity to visit a farm during his or her time at school, and opportunities are given for cooking and food growing activities.