East Lothian

ELC is committed to making sure that cook supervisors and catering assistants equally understand about local food so they can maintain the FFLSH Silver award.

As part of working towards Food for Life Served Here, cooks in charge received formal training on food provenance and quality. Kitchen assistants are being encouraged to work their way up to supervisor roles, and several catering assistants have gone on to become cook supervisors because they have shown the aptitude and enthusiasm for running a kitchen. 

At first, lack of confidence could be a barrier. Lorraine says, “We have to work hard to encourage assistants to believe in themselves. They might say to me, ‘Oh I couldnae go there’ if I ask them to cover for a cook supervisor in another school.

“But I say, ‘Yes, you could,’ and I break it down into something manageable for them. It’s about building good relationships, believing in them, and, in turn, them believing in what you are trying to do.”

"Earlier this year East Lothian Council adopted its Climate Change strategy. The school meals service continues to champion local produce and suppliers providing clear examples of a local, sustainable economy in action."

Vanessa Sanal, Service Manager at East Lothian Council

Lorraine says that not everyone understood what local meant in practice, or what it meant to be serving FFLSH meals. “I had to reassure them that I wouldn’t suddenly be asking them to cook lobster. They’d still be making macaroni cheese, but the raw ingredients would be at award level.”

Lorraine describes how using local produce also linked into educational activities with the pupils.

"George Anderson has been our distributor and supplier of fresh vegetables for several years, and we organised a competition for the children to get to see the potatoes being graded and so on. The cooks were able to go along as well.

“And then after that, some schools started growing their own, and the cooks were saying, ‘Your tatties are ready – let’s cook leek and tattie soup this week,’ and they would tell the children in the dining room, ‘Today you are eating your own potatoes’.

“It really caught staff’s interest. They do all sorts of great things on their own initiative now.”

“We show them what kind of fruit and veg is out there that is actually grown in Scotland that they can be tasting and eating. We see our role as more educational as time goes by.”

Mike Robertson, General Manager