Food and drink
“By 2020, the government would like all schools to be model suppliers of healthy, local and sustainable food and drink.Food should, where possible, be produced or prepared on site. Schools should show strong commitment to the environment, social responsibility and animal welfare. They should also seek to increase their involvement with local suppliers.”
The food and drink doorway is inextricably linked to the ‘being healthy’ outcome for children under Every Child Matters (ECM) and to the Healthy Eating theme of the National Healthy Schools Programme. It brings together all the different strands relating to food and drink in schools.
talk2learn food and drink discussion
Join in the talk2learn discussion about food and drink in sustainable schools. The discussion is asking:
- How can you use the curriculum to promote learning about healthy eating?
- What activities are your school and community doing towards food and drink sustainabilty?
Top tips for sustainability in food and drink
Read on for tips on how to make your school more sustainable about food and drink.
- Review your current position by looking at the food available in school and assessing both its nutritional value and impact on the environment.
- Distribute leadership responsibilities. Think about appointing a catering manager who fully understands nutritional standards, pricing policies and the labour implications involved.
- Look at how you could involve the whole school in what you are doing. For example, create stronger links between teaching staff and catering staff to ensure cookery lessons are used to teach students how to make the healthy meals served in school.
- Look at ‘active’ ways in which students can learn about food and drink, such as through growing their own produce.
- Think about how students can get involved in driving this agenda forward. Enlist the help of the school council in designing and marketing attractive healthy menus that students will want to eat
- Think globally by linking with schools abroad to compare notes about diet in different countries and look at Fairtrade issues.
Sustainable schools focusing on food and drink
