Inverclyde council achieves Food for Life Served Here award for fourth time

Catering staff at Inverclyde Council are celebrating as they have maintained their Food for Life Served Here Bronze award for another year, ensuring that pupils in 20 primary schools in the area continue to enjoy fresh, local and sustainable school meals.  

The hard work and dedication of all involved has once again been recognised by the widely respected and independently assessed scheme led by Soil Association Scotland, which is funded by Scottish Government.  

 The Food for Life Served Here award recognises and rewards local authorities in Scotland that serve school meals that are freshly prepared, using free-range eggs and high-welfare meat, and free from genetically modified ingredients and undesirable additives.  

Inverclyde Council first achieved the Food for Life Served Here Bronze award in 2019, serving 3,500 fresh, local and sustainable school meals a day. Pupils enjoy meals including tomato and basil pasta, sweet chilli chicken with savoury rice, and salmon and cod fishcakes. Seasonal vegetables are supplied by Glasgow-based George Carruthers & Sons Ltd, while McLays supply farm-assured meat. 

As well as successfully renewing its Food for Life Served Here Bronze Award, Inverclyde Council’s Catering Co-ordinator Food and Nutrition Linda Knox was recently named a Food for Life Scotland Ambassador. Linda is aiming to make Inverclyde’s primary meal service plastic free and will also be taking steps to try to prevent food waste. 

Councillor Jim Clocherty, Inverclyde Council’s convener of education and communities, said: “Our schools estate is second to none but first-class facilities are nothing without the hard work and dedication of staff and this award is testament to the excellent work done day in, day out by our catering teams. 

“They serve thousands of healthy, nutritious and sustainable meals to our pupils each day and most are provided at no cost to families through the council’s funding for universal school meals for children in primaries one to five. 

“Our staff are also making great strides towards eliminating plastic from school meals and reducing waste and I’m delighted for them in receiving this award from Soil Association Scotland for the fourth consecutive year in recognition of all that they do to fuel the learning of our children and young people.” 

Sarah Duley, Head of Food at Soil Association Scotland, said: "Congratulations to Inverclyde for retaining their Food for Life Served Here Bronze award for another year. This is no mean feat, particularly as the past two years have presented many additional challenges for caterers. Achieving the Food for Life Served Here award shows how committed everyone at Inverclyde Council is to providing a fantastic school meal service, especially the catering staff. We are delighted to recognise Inverclyde for continuing to deliver freshly prepared, healthy and sustainable food on school plates, and supporting Scottish food producers and suppliers.”