Thinking ahead to National Meals Week

National School Meals Week (NSMW), hosted by LACA, is a week’s worth of activities across the country, celebrating all that is great about the modern school meal.

As well as providing nutrition, energy and enjoyment to pupils, the benefits stretch far wider to include better health, wellbeing, behaviour, concentration and academic attainment.

The week, which takes place 11-19 November, also celebrates the people behind the meals, who work tirelessly to make sure pupils have a healthy and delicious prepared meal.

There will be a number of events taking place during the week, with a mixture of political activity, schoolbased events and engagement with school caterers, pupils and parents. Schools are invited to start thinking about how they will get involved in the event.

As LACA celebrates its 30th year, NSMW will have a new campaign called ‘#30 people, 30 stories’, which will uncover the stories behind everyone involved in putting a school lunch on the table. This includes the farmer that produces the food, the delivery driver that brings the food to the school kitchen, the cook, the kitchen assistant, the school leadership teams, and the MPs fighting to protect funding for school meals. One such ‘school meal hero’ is MP Sharon Hodgson who has been the education catering industry’s champion and standard bearer in the House of Commons for virtually the last ten years, as well as Chair of the School Food APPG.

There will be a ‘Taste For Yourself’ road show, which will go to England and Wales inviting parents, journalists, dignitaries and the public to enjoy some freshly prepared school food. This will be an opportunity to promote some of the less well known facts about a school lunch and tackle outdated perceptions.

It will also encourage pupils who currently don’t take a school meal to try one.

‘Move it with LACA‘ will include a number of initiatives to get pupils moving during NSMW, and will be tied in with the ‘daily mile’ campaign which is popular in schools.

As in previous years, LACA is planning to serve a school lunch at the Palace of Westminster so that MPs can try for themselves how great a modern school meal is. It is also a great opportunity to highlight the importance of policy and government support when it comes to school food.

Last year, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Nadhim Zahawi MP addressed the guests and spoke about the importance of children having a hot, healthy and nutritious two-course lunch on a daily basis. The Minister’s comments endorsed the messages that LACA had been taking around the country about the qualities and benefits of a school meal.

Neil Porter, LACA chair of events, comments on how NSMW has evolved since its inception: “There is no doubt in my mind that when the LACA Board launched NSMW that they had great vision in creating a platform for communication of the great work that school caterers were – and still are – doing that was going largely unheralded.

“Since that time, NSMW has evolved into a flagship event that has grown in its importance to the education catering industry and created greater awareness to not only the general public, but to all the thousands of dedicated individuals who do such a great job throughout the school year.

“However back in 1993, I doubt that even the most optimistic of LACA Board Members would have imagined that the fledgling week of celebrations would have developed into the colossal annual event that is NSMW today. Activities have included regular presentations to government to make sure that school meals are kept high on the political agenda; engaging thousands of schools across England and Wales in a plethora of activity and promotions; school chefs working in Michelin Star restaurants; and producing a cake to mark the 70th birthday of HRH Prince Charles. There is just so much more for everyone in the education catering industry to be involved in and to be rightly proud of.”

Previously part of NSMW, this year Host a School Chef is now a standalone year long programme.

Now in its sixth year, the scheme offers school chefs opportunities to work in some of the most exclusive restaurants and venues in the country, working alongside some of the most celebrated chefs, demonstrating the breadth and depth of talent of today’s education caterers.

Neil Porter comments: “The success of the Host a School Chef programme over the past five years has exceeded all our expectations and the list of venues that have participated would grace any publication on fine dining. It became clear to us that the demand from school chefs and interest from venues wishing to host chefs, gave us enough reason for LACA to expand the programme and launch it as an event in its own right.

Sarah Johnson from Alaska Seafood, who is sponsoring the event said: “We recognise the importance of the education catering industry and the role school caterer’s play influencing children’s food choices for the better. We also recognise the challenge of diversifying meal plans encouraging children to be open minded about the food they eat, particularly at a time when the concept of healthy eating is under the spotlight.

“LACA’s ‘Host a School Chef’ campaign has shown itself to be a great opportunity for Alaska Seafood to work with school caterers in their quest to provide nutritious meals to children. We know that seafood from Alaska is already being served in school kitchens up and down the country and hope that our sponsorship of this programme will help school chefs with their day to day challenges to persuade children to eat more fish.”

This year’s Host a School Chef kicked off with two school chefs working at the Michelin Star Chester Grosvenor.

Julia Wood, assistant cook at Weaverham High School in Northwich, and Sally Hazlehurst, business support supervisor for Edsential, the Community Interest Company founded by Cheshire West and Chester and Wirral Councils, spent the day with Chester Grosvenor’s executive chef Simon Radley.

Julia commented: “The first thing that struck me was the sheer number of staff employed across the numerous kitchens and I really appreciated Simon and his team taking time out of their busy day to give me the opportunity to enjoy such a wonderful experience.

“I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but for me the best experience was working with the pastry chef. I was astonished with the wondrous variety of pastries and desserts being made that day. They tasted scrumptious.”

Edsential colleague Sally added: “It was a real honour and pleasure to work inside the kitchen at the Grosvenor with such talented chefs and it really was “wow” from start to finish. The only problem was that the day went far too quickly, it was mesmerising. Simon’s brigade are a really welcoming, friendly and inclusive group, who made us feel part of the team from the moment we arrived, which helped everything to run so smoothly throughout the day.

“I think the best way I can sum up the day is that it wasn’t just about cooking and serving food, it was about presenting diners with art on a plate. Thank you to Edsential for the experience and to the sponsors for making it possible.”

Steven Cross, the winner of the 2019 LACA School Chef of The Year (SCOTY) competition, spent the day cooking with Alyn Williams at the Westbury in the Westbury Hotel Mayfair as part of the programme.

“We have been involved with Host a School Chef from day one when LACA first introduced it”, said Alyn “and there is no doubt it is a great way for caterers in whatever part of our industry they work, to share knowledge and experience and discuss new techniques that can benefit all. Steven and the team in the kitchen here have worked together brilliantly today and we have enjoyed having him along. He is clearly a talented chef who has had a lot of experience in the industry”

Steven, who cooks at Park Community School in Havant, said: “What a tremendous day and it is such a pity that it has gone so quickly. I cannot thank Alyn, head chef Tom Booton and all the rest of the team enough for giving me such a great experience. In addition I must thank LACA and our sponsors Alaska Seafood for making this all possible, without their significant input none of the school caterers across England and Wales would be able to experience this and I hope all my colleagues have an experience as good as mine.” L

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