It's lunchtime at St George's C of E Primary School in Whit Lane and the pupils are filing into the canteen to be faced with a cornucopia of freshly arranged food. There's meat and potato pie, a roast dinner, tuna fish, salads, a healthy apple crumble and custard, plus almost a market stall full of fruit with melons shaped like little boats.
The pupils are certainly enjoying the new menu... "I had some potato pie with veg and I really like it" says Mackenzie "It's better than last term, it's fantastic..." And Paul's relishing his cheese wrap and salad..."Wonderful, very, very tasty" he says.
It's all part of a new Government initiative that builds on the post-Jamie Oliver agenda and aims to make school lunches even more appetising and healthy*...
"It's to make sure that children are given healthy, nutritional meals which is really, really good" explains Sharon Smith, the North West Chair of LACA (Lead Association for Catering in Education).
"There were nutritional standards before this which were very good but very rigid and this has given us the opportunity to be more flexible" she adds "The ultimate aim is to get every child to eat a hot nutritious meal at lunchtime. And for the infants it's all free. It's a good initiative because it's known that children who eat nutritious food perform better and of course it links into early and later health."
To help promote the new standards, Diane Modahl, former 800m Commonwealth Gold Medal winner and founder of the ace Diane Modahl Sports Foundation, is at the school to sample the menu and inspire pupils to get on board...although judging by the clean plates they don't need much inspiring.
"The selection was amazing" she says "When I walked up to the buffet bar there was a huge array of things...and it looked really refreshing. I opted for the tuna fish, salad and baked potato and it was so tasty. I sat next to a couple of the kids from year one and we chatted over a wonderful meal.
"It was healthy and that's what this is about, establishing positive habits for life" she explains "I think if young people have a quality experience with food then that is a good starting point to be able to continue that relationship with food, particularly now we know that the food we put into our bodies has a huge knock-on effect with our health, our ability to exercise and move, and also to how we feel. That's a really important part of how we perform in the classroom, outside the classroom...on the running track. So for me to be involved with this is really important, it's providing that opportunity for young people to see what's available to them and how they can make positive choices."
Diane's visit to St George's also links in with her Sports Foundation which enables young people `to make the most of themselves in sport, school and life' (see previous Salford Star article click here).
"Our Foundation was set up for one reason and one reason only, and that was to empower the potential of young people so they could raise their aspirations and go on to be great ...world class people, world class athletes and so this sits perfectly well because opportunity starts right at the beginning" she says "It starts with possibilities, and this is about raising expectations, raising aspirations and saying `I get it; this wonderful food that is available to me is important because of health, of wellbeing, it tastes good and it makes me feel great'. And that's the parallels between the Foundation and the work I'm doing this morning."
For St George's Head Teacher, Jane Tyers, the new flexible menu will particularly help children with allergies and builds on work the school is doing all the time to give their pupils the best possible start in life...
"I think at this school we've been lucky as we've had a really good cook and a really good team for a long time, so the food has been of a very high standard and we've always had a high uptake of school dinners" she says "The new food standards is more about the food that is available for children, particularly children with allergies or dietary recommendations and there's definitely more flexibility in the menus for the cook that might reflect some of the tastes of the children as we get used to using the new system."
Favourites amongst pupils already include roast dinners, cheese flan, omelettes and healthy sausages... "Chips don't appear that often, and rather than sandwiches they will choose a wrap and put their own salads in with cheese or tuna, and they love using the salad bar, so that's very popular" says Jane.
"Food makes a massive impact on children's ability to concentrate and their ability to learn but what we're hoping as well is that it's life choices" she explains "So eating healthy in school is then impacted on their later life when they are cooking for themselves and for their own families; that they've got that real understanding. We also do healthy eating cookery club where they make food to take home and eat...It's going on all the time, and that's our aim, to influence healthy eating habits beyond school..."
* The new school food standards include...
One or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment every day
At least three different fruits, and three different vegetables each week
An emphasis on wholegrain foods
An emphasis on making water the drink of choice
No more than two portions a week of food that has been deep-fried, batter coated, or breadcrumb coated
No more than two portions of food which include pastry each week.
Photos by Steven Speed
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