City of Edinburgh Council celebrates Nine Years of Local, Fresh Food
City of Edinburgh Council’s catering team are celebrating after the council renewed its Food for Life Served Here Bronze award for the 9th year in a row.
The council, which first received the Bronze award in 2015, is now serving 25,000 nutritious, sustainable and locally-sourced Food for Life meals in its 194 settings every day.
It’s the first time the award includes their nurseries, highlighting this commitment to putting good food on the plate.
Local authorities receive the award following an independent assessment and inspection to ensure the food being served in schools across the local authority is good for pupils’ health, good for the environment and good for the local economy.
The scheme is run by Soil Association Scotland and funded by Scottish Government.
As the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, catering teams are under increased pressure to balanced costs, whilst school meals have become more important than ever as a nutritional safety net for pupils whose families might be struggling.
At the same time, the need to tackle climate change through serving food that is sustainably produced remains paramount.
The City of Edinburgh Council has demonstrated what can be achieved despite difficult circumstances. Holding the bronze award since 2015, their catering teams ensure that a minimum of 75% of dishes are freshly prepared from unprocessed ingredients. Meals are also free from:
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undesirable trans fats,
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sweeteners and
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additives.
What’s more, the City of Edinburgh Council is supporting local, Scottish produce and ensures support for Scottish suppliers. Food for Life Scotland had an established relationship with Campbells Prime Meat, who already had the contract to supply meat to the City of Edinburgh Council.
The company met with FFLS and QMS to see how it might work with its producers to supply Scottish farm-assured meat to the council through its existing farm-assured meat supply chain.
Campbells Prime Meat has also recognised the benefits. Christopher Campbell said:
“We supply farm-assured and Scottish-assured meat to many public sector sites, but schools are at the forefront. In this day and age, food provenance is very important to customers and the Catering Mark [Food for Life Served Here] means people know their food is local and fresh."
Education, Children and Families Convener Joan Griffiths said:
“The wellbeing of our children and young people is at the heart of everything we do, especially when it comes to the meals they are provided while at school. We have recently renewed our Food for Life Served Here Bronze Award, which provides students with well balanced meals while they learn.
“It’s also important to us that we are supporting local suppliers. We use local suppliers like George Anderson and Sons based in McMerry to deliver all our fresh fruit and vegetables to school kitchens, Campbells Prime Meat in Linlithgow who deliver all our fresh meat and Bernard Corrigan, the family-owned fishmonger.
“We look forward to our continued work with our local community suppliers, Soil Association Scotland and Food for Life.”
Sarah Duley, Head of Food, Food for Life Scotland, said:
“Congratulations to City of Edinburgh Council for renewing their Food for Life Served Here Bronze Award for another year. This is a huge achievement and shows that staff are dedicated to providing pupils with a hot, nutritious meal that’s healthy, freshly prepared and sustainably produced.
“We are delighted to recognise Edinburgh City Council for continuing to put more good food on school plates and for supporting Scotland’s food businesses and Good Food Nation ambitions.”