Nine years of Bronze for Aberdeen City

Aberdeen City Council’s catering team are celebrating after the council renewed its Food for Life Served Here Bronze certification for the ninth time. The council, which first received the award for its primary school meals in 2015 and for secondary schools in 2017, is now serving more than 13,500 nutritious, sustainable and locally sourced Food for Life meals across 61 sites every day.

Picture: Councillor Martin Greig receives the Food for Life Served Here Bronze award certificate from Food for Life Scotland’s Partnerships Manager Sarah Gowanlock at a celebration with the council’s schools catering team at Culter Primary School.

This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of the council’s school catering team, as well as the commitment to scratch cooking and local sourcing. These values are on display through the Give Peas a Chance! pilot project, a collaboration between Soil Association Scotland and Aberdeen City Council to get locally grown, organic dried split peas into school meals.

The 12-month Give Peas a Chance! pilot project – which is funded by Sustain's Bridging the Gap programme – is opening up a new route to market for this nutritious and climate friendly plant protein, allowing pupils to access healthy and sustainable food. It is a partnership between Soil Association Scotland, Aberdeen City Council catering and procurement teams, pea producer Phil Swire of Balmakewan Farm, the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) and the Royal Northern Countryside Initiative (RNCI).

With an updated menu launched after the October break, pupils can now enjoy pea-based recipes that are part of the council’s new school meals menu, including lemon and pea risotto, sweet potato and pea curry, split pea meatballs with bolognaise sauce, and even a pea-based muffin and cookie.

The council’s school meals service is certified by the widely respected and independently assessed scheme led by Soil Association Scotland and funded by Scottish Government. The Food for Life Scotland programme provides a framework through which local authorities can ensure they are serving food that’s good for health, the environment and the economy. This is done by following a set of standards to achieve the Food for Life Served Here award at Bronze, Silver or Gold level.

The Bronze award recognises that a minimum of 75 percent of dishes are freshly prepared from unprocessed ingredients. Meals are also free from undesirable trans fats, sweeteners, additives and all genetically modified ingredients. Catering teams also use free range eggs, higher welfare meat and ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources.

Councillor Martin Greig, Convenor of the Education and Children’s Services Committee, Aberdeen City Council, said: “Good quality food is an important way to nourish and support young people’s health and wellbeing. School meals should be nutritious and contain as much fresh, local and sustainable food as possible. It is testament to the ongoing commitment and hard work of our catering and procurement teams that the Council has received the Food for Life Served Here Bronze award for the ninth year. It is a great achievement and congratulations to everyone involved.

“Being part of the Give Peas a Chance! pilot programme has enabled us to bring more local, organic produce into the menu. This is great for our young people, the local economy and the environment. It has also given catering staff an opportunity to develop new recipes and menus.”

Sarah Gowanlock, Partnerships Manager, Food for Life Scotland, said: “Aberdeen City Council’s ninth year of the Food for Life Served Here award is a huge achievement. It shows that staff are dedicated to providing pupils with a meal that’s healthy, freshly prepared and sustainably produced. We’re proud to be working in partnership with the council to deliver even more good food to Aberdeen City pupils through the Give Peas a Chance! pilot project, which is a fantastic example of how public procurement can have a positive impact on our food systems. Congratulations to all involved!”