Sustainable food procurement initiative - St Peter's Primary School
Case Study: St Peter's Primary School, East Bridgford, Nottingham
Region: East Midlands
Organisation: Primary School
Description: Following deregulation in April 2000 the Head Teacher of the school along with the Governing body decided to go it alone, with a complete change of policy on sourcing and delivering its own school meals. It was a massive decision especially as it was the first primary school in Nottinghamshire to "opt out."
High quality education for the children at St Peter's was of crucial importance and included in this was educating children about health and food, a fit mind and body contributing to their educational attainment. Therefore at St Peter's they not only decided to run their own school meals service, having control over the ethos of the service and their menus, but also sourced as much locally grown and organic food as possible. Food is sourced so that they can be confident in its quality and that it is not only tasty and attractive to children, but also provides a medium through which the healthy eating message can be delivered. So for instance, they only serve meat that is fully traceable.
Benefits:
- Serving your local community
- Develop strong links with local suppliers/farmers
- By encouragement to make the healthy choice you are protecting children from heart disease, diabetes etc;
- Bringing farmer/producer/supplier and the children together
Lessons learned during implementation:
- Listen to parents, children, head teacher, governors, kitchen staff
- Budget carefully
- Try to accommodate all children with special dietary needs
- If you want to succeed you will
Future Developments: Improvements in service and delivery are always being investigated; with the next project looking at using crockery plates and dishes instead of the flight trays; also having blue gingham wipe able tablecloths, having a salad and pasta bar, a baked potato machine, serving more fruit like Smoothies, fruit salad and looking at easier access to bottled water and the possibilities of "Lunch buddies" for the younger children.
The specialist company based at the school, called Primary Choice, advises other schools on how to set up an independent meals service, following on from their own success.
Further information
Page last modified:
23 September 2005
Page published: 1 May 2003