Food for Life News 

Cookathon 2011

On Tuesday 5th April staff, parents and pupils were very busy cooking and eating Veggie Fajitasa as part of a national 'Cookathon' event.

As part of the 'Let's get Cooking Club' schools from across the country were encouraged to join in with a mass 'Cookathon' with as many people as possible preparing, cooking and most importantly trying their Veggie Fajitas.

Over 650 pupils from Nursery to Year 6, staff and parents participated.  Parents and toddlers from Chestnut Children's Centre joined in too.  All children were sent home with the recipe and encouraged to have a go with parents at home.

The event was sponsored by the local Franche Co-op store who donated all the ingredients and 7 members of staf who came and worked alongside staff and pupils for the day.

Tracy Price, teacher and co-ordinator of the event said "the children were so enthusiastic about making fajitas and were very keen to try their own cooking.  Many of them tried food they hadn't had before and thoroughly enjoyed the event.  We are keen to continue to promote healthy eating and teach children practical cooking skills, which are so important in life.

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Roast Dinner Day

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Future cooks fine tune their skills at Franche Food and Gardening Show

Franche Community Primary School held its third Franche Food and Gardening Show on Friday 28th April with the pupil’s Masterchef ‘Cook Off’ being the central feature.  

Tracy Price, Teacher and Healthy Schools Co-ordinator said “the Food and Gardening show is an ideal opportunity for the school to share its healthy eating ethos with pupils, parents and the local community and to offer a selection of our school lunches for food tasting.  We also invite our local suppliers to show where food for the school lunches comes from.”  She added “the Masterchef competition runs in school every year for all children from Reception through to Year 6.  Initially we ask them to cook at home and bring in photos and information about their dish and those who get through to the heats are invited into the school’s food technology room to replicate the dish in the heats.  After that, one pupil from each year is chosen for the final which is held as a major part of the Food Show.”

This year’s winners are Lucas Remmers aged 5 from Reception who created his own dip using some sophisticated equipment and Emily Flynn-McCabe aged 10 from Year 5, whose fruit salad was designed as a way to encourage her younger brother and his friend to eat more fruit.

In addition to the Cook Off, the school’s Gardening Club were encouraging visitors to the show to grow their own vegetables at home by supplying small plants grown at school to be taken home.  There was also an opportunity for visitors to take part in a recycling activity to see how quickly they could sort a pile of rubbish into the right recycling groups.

Franche Community Primary School is a Food for Life Partnership Flagship School and has recently been presented with their Silver Award by Monty Don at a ceremony in Birmingham.  They offer seasonal hot lunches using local produce where possible to both children and staff and hold a weekly lunchclub for local senior citizens.  In addition pupils throughout the school from Early Years through to Key Stage 2 have the chance to participate in growing herbs and vegetables to be used in the school kitchen. 

Monty Don dishes out prestigious school food award to Franche Community Primary School

On February 4th, celebrity gardener, TV presenter and writer Monty Don presented the prestigious Food for Life Partnership Silver Award to Franche Community Primary School, who has excelled in transforming their food culture. The award ceremony took place at the Soil Association Conference at The Custard Factory in Birmingham.

Monty Don said:

“This is more than just an award ceremony. This is a celebration of schools who have succeeded in transforming their food culture.

“Young people in these schools are cooking, growing and eating fresh, seasonal, local and organic food, and reconnecting with the farms that produce their food. These youngsters and their parents are celebrating good food and best of all it’s giving them what will probably be some of the most enjoyable experiences of their school lives.”

Franche Community Primary School now serves school meals on plates, not flight trays, and has a range of locally sourced and organic items on the menu. All chicken, bacon and sausages served are Freedom Food certified or free range and no fish from unsustainable sources is served. Franche Community Primary School also has a cooking club, and pupils get to cook with and eat the produce grown in the school growing area. Parents and the wider community get involved in food education via food-themed events.

Emma Noble, Director of the Food for Life Partnership said:

"This school shows what real 21st century education is all about, which is using real life experiences to teach the curriculum and providing the next generation with solutions to what threatens their future, namely climate change and the obesity crisis. By empowering young people to make informed food choices and giving them the skills to grow and cook food for themselves and their families, Food for Life Partnership schools lead the way for a more sustainable future."

The Food for Life Partnership is a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture. Together we will revolutionise schools meals, reconnect young people with farms and inspire families to cook and grow food. 

The initiative is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led by the Soil Association, bringing together the practical expertise of the Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust.

Worcestershire school receives food award in the company of The Prince of Wales

On 1 December, at the first ever Food for Life Partnership Awards Ceremony in London, Franche Community Primary School received the Food for Life Partnership Bronze Award for good school food culture. This is a great achievement and only 20 other schools in England were presented with the Bronze Award at the Awards Ceremony, where The Prince of Wales was present.

Jeanette Orrey, Food for Life Partnership School Meals Advisor and the school cook who inspired Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners campaign, says: "We campaigned for better school dinners, but it’s not just about school meals anymore, it’s also about practical food education like learning to cook, growing food and visiting farms to learn where food actually comes from. This is what we, at the Food for Life Partnership, work with schools across England to achieve.”

Franche Community Primary School has shown that it is possible to transform school food culture by changing school meals and integrating practical food education into their school.

Now Franche Community Primary School serves seasonal school meals that are at least 75% freshly prepared by trained school cook, Victoria Forrester and her team. Pupils and parents are involved in planning improvements to school menus and the dining experience via a school nutrition action group, boosting school meal take-up. Every pupil has the opportunity to visit a farm during his or her time at school, and opportunities are given for cooking and food growing activity.

Headteacher at Franche Community Primary School, Mrs Val Weddell Hall, says: “We are very proud that the school’s healthy eating culture has been recognised in this way.  Our children have every opportunity to learn about food, where it comes from, to grow their own food and eat it which is fantastic.  This is a whole school effort and together with the Food for Life Partnership we intend to continue to work with local schools and our community to promote the benefits of local, seasonal and fresh food”.

The Food for Life Partnership’s ambitious goal is to have 3,600 schools enrolled by 2011 and, through our work with these schools and their communities, improve the well-being of 150,000 people, helping them to understand where food comes from and take control of their food lives.

Healthy food means tasty food

Our healthy food is going down a storm at two other local schools this term. Franche Community Primary School has joined with St Ambrose Catholic Primary School and Wilden All Saints C of E Primary School to supply them with their hot lunches and the numbers taking hot lunches is already growing after just a couple of weeks back at school.

The meals are prepared from fresh food and cooked at our Franche Community Primary School kitchens and transported in purpose built units keeping the food at the right temperature until it’s served. As a Food for Life Flagship School we are totally committed to offering high quality lunches using fresh produce which is local where possible.

Mrs Joy White, Headteacher at Wilden Primary School said “The standard of our school meals from Franche is exceptional, giving children variety, and nutritious choices which sustains them for afternoon learning. The daily meals and salad bar offers an excellent choice with the opportunity to try something new’”

Cook Victoria Forrester added “we introduced healthy lunchtimes at Franche 12 months ago and it’s fantastic that we’ve got the opportunity to reach out to other local schools and offer them the same healthy and tasty meals. The children have wide and varied tastes and our menu ranges from roasts to curries, chocolate puddings to freshly prepared yoghurts. We also offer all children a salad bar in addition to whichever lunch they choose and it’s always really popular.” She added “there’s been a lot of bad press about healthy eating but our families have really embraced the idea and the children really enjoy the choices we offer them.”

The menu includes a wide variety of meals with a roast every Wednesday and Fab Fridays where the children’s choices such as homemade burgers, chicken curry, and homemade chips are incorporated into the choice.  There are also baguettes and salads to choose from.

Katie Joyner aged 9 from St Ambrose Catholic Primary School said that “the meals are really really nice and I think that it’s good that we can choose what we eat on the day. I’m really excited to try the pudding today as I haven’t had Bakewell Tart before”.
	NewMitchell Joslin aged 6 from Wilden Primary School said that his favourite meal was the curry as “it’s really tasty”. Cell

Strawberry Stories

A group of Year 6 children from Franche Community Primary School went strawberry picking this week to supply their school kitchen with local fruit for summer puddings and to use in their smoothy bar throughout the autumn. The outing was arranged as part of their literacy project and they'll be writing about their experience and the fruit that they picked.

Although it was a grey day it didn't dampen the student's spirits and they were extremely excited to be out in the beautiful countryside at Gorst Hill Farm, Rock.

The children picked both strawberries and blackcurrants and were interested to hear about the different types of strawberries available at the farm whilst tasting the difference!

Catherine Barker a Year 6 teacher at Franche Community Primary School who accompanied the children said "it's been a lovely morning for the children. They have thoroughly enjoyed being out in such a lovely part of the countryside and have come back with lots of thoughts for their literacy group." she added "one of the highlights of the trip was a walk through the farm and encountering a herd of cows and from the children's reactions I expect that will be a popular feature of the stories".

Gorst Hill Farm PYO is open throughout July, Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. For more information please call 07773 751880 or see www.gorsthillfarm.co.uk.

Fathers Day Lunch

Father's and Grandfathers were celebrated on Wednesday 18th June with a special Fathers Day Lunch for the Upper School. Fathers, Grandfathers and Carers were all invited to a roast dinner celebration.

These are just some of the Fathers/Grandfathers/Carers that joined us and here's what they had say:

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Victoria our School Cook who was runner up in the Worcestershire County Council School Cook of the Year 2008 competition .

The cook off took place at the Three Counties Show on Friday 13th June when three schools took part in the final.

Victoria wowed the judges with Pershore Summer Chicken Pie with seasonal steamed vegetables and wholemeal bread, followed by Worcestershire Pear Crumble Cake with vanilla sauce.

The school was also runner up in the Dining Experience category and so well done to Tracey Price our Year 3 teacher and Healthy Schools Co-ordinator and the whole team who have been working on the dining environment throughout the year.

See Victoria in Action!