“Innovation will enable us to become a Good Food Nation – as Local Authorities show”
Head of Food, Sarah Duley, discusses the passion, enthusiasm and innovation in public sector catering and why this puts us in great stead for meeting Scotland’s Good Food Nation ambitions, shining a light on Food for Life Scotland award-holders who are paving the way.
ASSIST FM recently published a report Scotland’s School Meals in a Good Food Nation, to which the Food for Life Scotland team were pleased to contribute. The report said: “the passion of individuals working in the industry should be celebrated … their engagement with the next generation will ensure that Scotland can truly become a Good Food Nation”. We couldn’t agree more.
However, this is set against the backdrop of an extremely challenging day-to-day context. Managing a school meals service amid significant budget challenges for local authorities must be daunting, with shrinking spend contrasting with increasing demands. Yet, we constantly see examples of caterers innovating to make their service the best it can be, often balancing the immediate need to get good food on the plate with contributing time and expertise to national discussions and advocacy on continually improving school meals.
The innovation by caterers across our Food for Life Scotland network provide not just our team, but fellow caterers with inspiration. Often colleagues tell me of incredible projects that local authority caterers are driving forward and it’s incredible to see. Take, for example, Food for Life Served Here Bronze award holder Argyll and Bute Council, who have trialled using drones to deliver school meals to its island-based schools. Or in Stirling – which holds the FFLSH Silver award – caterers at Dunblane Primary School run a Chef’s Apprentice Programme, bringing P6 pupils into the kitchen to learn skills including fresh food preparation and baking.
We’re often particularly struck by the innovation displayed during training sessions with Food for Life Served Here (FLFLSH) award holders – for example, the sugar-free granola recipe that came out of our training session with Highland Council , or the delicious pea-based recipes developed by Aberdeen City Council as part of the Give Peas A Chance pilot project. The passion and determination for putting good food on the plate is shown every day, to provide the very best for our young people.
Local Authorities are finding innovative ways to include more organic produce on school meals menus, too. FFLSH Gold award holder East Ayrshire Council’s partnership with local organic farm Mossgiel Farm not only means that primary school pupils in East Ayrshire receive local, organic milk, but also involves an innovative approach to reducing waste, with milk dispensers installed in schools reducing the need for plastic containers.
The exploration of sourcing local venison for school meals in Argyll and Bute, as mentioned in ASSIST FM’s paper, is another example of local authority caterers’ commitment to innovating and developing their catering service to meet multiple agendas – in this case, supporting a route to market for local, wild deer. Food for Life Scotland is supporting Argyll and Bute Council with this project and work is underway collecting volume and price data on the existing meat products used on menus. Initial menu and recipe development work is taking place, and venison will be used instead of other meat products on the menu, including burgers, meatballs, sausages, mince, stewing steak. Recipes will be developed in compliance with the Scottish Government Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools and the Food for Life Served Here standards.
In another example, East Renfrewshire Council is connecting young people to food and our food systems, helping to grow awareness of sustainability, where food comes from,, and the impact it has on our health and the health of our planet. For the past 10 years, East Renfrewshire catering service staff have run the Let’s Cook programme. The cooking sessions are delivered in partnership with catering and teaching staff, which ensures curriculum learning outcomes can be met in a fun and interesting way. Many schools within East Renfrewshire Council run growing projects and, where possible, the cooking sessions integrate the fruit and vegetables harvested, giving pupils an understanding of the farm to fork concept.
These examples offer just a small window into the innovation and activity happening across Scotland’s school meals sector. We are proud to support this fantastic work and the Food for Life Scotland team is always on hand to support local authorities and to promote and showcase their success – a need highlighted in ASSIST FM’s report. This is twofold, generally celebrating achievements but also highlighting the need for sufficient resource to be allocated to fully capitalise on the passion and innovation of Scotland’s school caterers and to embed best practice.
The Food for Life Scotland programme is named as a key indicator for two of the six outcomes in the Good Food Nation draft National Plan. And the Food for Life Scotland team’s knowledge and experience includes cost-saving measures for school meals menus, supply chain management and connecting local authorities and local producers, as well as increasing the number of meals served without compromising on these wider benefits.
We encourage all local authority and public sector caterers to get in touch with us to share your successes, discuss how we can support you, or to start the journey to gaining the Food for Life Served Here award.
