News

National School Meals Week (NSMW) is the one week of the year where the school meals industry celebrates all that is great about school food. LACA have organised NSMW for the past 21 years with many memorable moments.

With UIFSM dominating the news over the past two years, NSMW was used as a vehicle to help raise the profile of the industry in Westminster; however, following the implementation and rollout of the policy in 2014, it was felt NSMW 2015 should be used to raise the profile of other issues with a focus, in part, more on Wales. Plans were put in place in early 2015 at which time it became clear NSMW would once again see a great deal of activity for school caterers from across England and Wales to get involved in.

Over the years, NSMW has evolved into more than simply a week of theme days. Theme days have their place at school level and many free resources are made available by LACA for caterers to download and use to add fun and interest to their lunches, but from a media perspective at Regional and National level, NSMW messaging for this year was designed to highlight the the contribution our fantastic industry makes to children’s lives on a daily basis, the professionalism of staff and to celebrate all the great things school caterers have been doing all year.

So what’s happened this year?

• NSMW was launched in Snowdon in July where a delegation of VIPs, the LACA Chair, Vice Chair and School Caterers from Gwynedd, ventured to the summit for a high profile event covered by S4CTV plus local press and online across North Wales. School food was served to 100’s of hungry walkers who were impressed at what was on offer. The theme for the event was ‘School food reaches new heights’ and was seen to be an ideal way to start the 2015 celebrations.

• At LACA’s Main Event, caterers were encouraged to tell us what they would be doing for NSMW through picture boards and selfies

• At the start of NSMW itself, Saturday’s Premiership match between Manchester City and Norwich at the Etihad stadium ‘Kicked off’ NSMW with Joanne Cars from Tameside School Catering Service preparing and serving food in the Executive Restaurant. Joanne was delighted to meet former World Boxing Champion and lifelong Man City fan Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton, as well as other famous faces and celebrities such as Liam Gallagher and past Man City legends.

Joanne has made such an impression that the Executive Chef has given her an open invitation to return with members of her team to share in this experience and he intends to spend time in Joanne’s school as a return visit. The visit and subsequent National Roast Dinner Day activity in Tameside received some excellent coverage in the local media with the Manchester Evening News to the fore. Discussions are taking place with the Manchester City Community Foundation about a planned programme of visits to Tameside schools to discuss healthy eating and exercise-linked programmes with pupils on an ongoing basis.

• On Monday all 650 Members of the House of Commons, received an email from the office of Sharon Hodgson (drafted by the NSMW team), asking them to support NSMW and to do what they could in their constituencies to help raise the profile of school meals. A number of MP’s replied pledging their support and asking how could they help.

• Each day, 2 school chefs were given the opportunity to work in the prestigious kitchens at the House of Commons. To qualify, LACA members had to enter the ‘Tell us Why’ competition and highlight the skills and attributes that would make them a suitable ‘face of the industry’ at the Palace of Westminster. All entrants were fabulous. Those representing the School Catering industry and having an experience of a lifetime serving school meals to MPs, Ministers, possibly the PM included and VIPs alike are:-

o SCOTY winner Kate Davies from Caerphilly
o Heather Hughes from St. Oswald’s in Durham
o Natalie Percival - Hester’s Way Primary School, Cheltenham
o Tony Mulgrew – Ravenscliffe High School (dedicated Special Needs facility as part of the high school) – Calderdale, Halifax
o Angela Frederick – Llangewydd Junior School, Bridgend
o Jo Wotton – The Saints Way C of E Multi School Academy, Bodmin, Cornwall
o Deborah Leddington – Parkside Meadows School, Bromsgrove, Worcs
o Samantha Ward  – Collaton St Mary School – Torbay, Devon
o Lisa Green – Clifton Green Primary School – York
o Susan Morton – St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Churchdown, Gloucester

We received some tremendous feedback from those attending. Pictured here is Angela Frederick from Bridgend who said “I just wanted to let you know what an amazing day I had at the House of Commons, firstly I was introduced to the Executive Chef then taken to the Banqueting/Larder kitchen where I met Mark Grenham the Banqueting Sous Chef and his team who made me feel very welcome.

I helped to prep for the evening banquet, and then was involved in a variety of task including lunch, afternoon tea, preparing canapes etc. I was lucky enough to have a tour and Mark very kindly took me around to see the other kitchens, meet other chefs, I saw the beautiful dining rooms including the Winston Churchill dining room, Terrace dining room with a view of the Thames, and a tour around the Houses of Parliament, the day went so quickly.”

• Throughout the week more than 100 School Chef swaps took place – that means School Caterers worked in high profile venues, local to them, to enjoy a great experience as well as showing just how talented and professional School Chefs are. Many reciprocal moves have been arranged for the restaurant chefs – including some Michelin Star recipients – to visit the school whose chefs they hosted and spend the day in the school kitchen.

• On Wednesday, National Roast Dinner Day was once again held during NSMW – LACA are working closely with the Soil Association’s Food For Life Partnership, both organisations recognising the added value of joining up to ‘shout out’ about the benefits and quality of school food with joint activities – an example of this being one Caterer committing to serve more than 23,000 roast dinners on that day!

• Also on Wednesday, Myles Bremner, the Director of the School Food Plan visited a large school in Kent to have lunch with the Chairman of the Council and other dignitaries, pupils and staff. Kent Council have been great supporters of NSMW and indeed the UIFSM policy, and the school visited has seen many more pupils benefit from a hot nutritious meal since the introduction of UIFSM.