Healthier Catering award for all school menus in borough
Telford & Wrekin Council’s Catering service is responsible for providing many of the meals for children in the borough’s primary and secondary schools.
The team is committed to working in partnership with schools to provide a healthy and nutritionally balanced meal and an enjoyable lunch time experience.
That commitment continues to ensure menus are created to reflect government food standards, and also the individual ideas of the school and the children who attend, who are often involved in helping to create the menus.
And now, with all children in Reception, Year One and Year Two in state-funded schools in England being eligible for a cooked school lunch at no cost to the parent, it is important that the Catering team continue to strive for the highest standards and provision.
With that said, there is a great deal happening at the moment within catering, including:
· the installation of a new on site kitchen at St Luke’s Primary school meaning school meals will be cooked on site from September
· the extension of Tibberton school kitchen
· the launch of a new catering provision at Telford Priory School and The Park School
· working towards the bronze Food for Life accreditation which is set to be audited in September
All the school menus in the borough have the Telford & Wrekin Council Healthier Catering award, given to catering premises for their menu and cooking methods, for example oven baking rather than frying food.
Ingredients are sourced as locally as possible, including meat, fruit, vegetable and free range eggs, and all fish used is sustainable. The fresh food is then prepared daily in the kitchens.
For children with special dietary or cultural requirements, the catering team will work closely with parents or carers to agree menus to ensure the individual needs of the child are met. This can make school lunches accessible to those who have previously felt that packed lunches were the only way to ensure individual needs were met.
Councillor Paul Watling, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “Good food provision in schools has been shown to not only lead to healthier children but also to improved attainment.
“Our catering service works hard to ensure that children can have a healthy, nutritious meal during the school day, which can in turn help with concentration and achievement, as well as being an excellent setting to help with social skills of sitting and eating together, which can be difficult to do at home with busy family lives.
To find out more about school meal provision, including free school meals, meals for those in Reception, Year One and Year Two, and to see menus for each school the Catering team services visit www.telford.gov.uk/schoolmeals
