School Food Plan

My name is Jo Wotton and I am a mum of 5, my eldest is 20 and youngest 8. We live in a beautiful small village called St Tudy in North Cornwall. My youngest Tom attends the village school and in early May I had a conversation with the Head, Karen...
My name is Jo Wotton and I am a mum of 5, my eldest is 20 and youngest 8. We live in a beautiful small village called St Tudy in North Cornwall. My youngest Tom attends the village school and in early May I had a conversation with the Head, Karen Holmes about the possibility of being able to come out of our catering contract. We had a new cook come in  January and for one reason or another our numbers had fallen to around 5 children a day out of 65! We knew that if we continued at these numbers we would probably lose our meal service and possibly our canteen as it is across the road from the school and we had already had to fight to keep our school open and the canteen is expensive to run.

I went home and thought about it, spoke to a couple of Twitter friends and went back the next day and offered to become the SNAG co-ordinator and I would start with the school meals. I knew we could only make big changes if we went for a “whole of school” approach to school food. I have since then scrapped the old menu, designed new menus for St Tudy and St Mabyn which is the sister school as we have recently become part of an academy (The Saint’s Way MAT- St Petroc’s, Lerryn, St Mabyn, St Tudy, and St Winnow schools) and have got new local suppliers etc. I have done lots of taste tests etc with the parents and children and I am busy “making over” the canteen and getting ready for September.
I have a background in hospitality and food styling but due to our eldest son’s lung problems (he uses oxygen daily) I have only done a bit of freelance the last few years, I have also been teaching cookery in the schools.

When I first read the plan I was thrilled to see that all pupils up to 14 would be getting cookery classes, it’s so important to give what I feel is a life skill.  Learning to cook starts pupils thinking about what they eat. I was also pleased to see a section on small schools as I feel we face added issues as it is hard to provide a meal service that can break even.

I feel we are embracing the idea of “whole of school” approach to school food. We have started to work towards FFL Partnership Bronze awards and I am thrilled to say that we are getting rid of the flight trays!

I think that the School Food Plan will continue to offer me access to other people who are doing this well. I am really just a parent who is passionate about school meals and children being able to access a meal at lunchtime. I have been following the plan since Henry and John were tasked with it last year. It has allowed me to discuss with others who work in the school meal sector how they do things, what can work, and what doesn’t work. @izword (Mark Webster) is a chef who works in a school in Manchester, he has been a constant source of support and inspiration, in lots of ways what I am doing has been supported by Twitter as there is always someone there to answer my questions.

I would really urge anyone who hasn’t read the plan to do so. It’s written with so much warmth and passion, it’s good common sense stuff. It starts with saying its the school’s head who needs to lead the fight to getting more children eating school meals and without Karen’s support to my mad idea we may have been on the road to losing our school meal service. I would read the plan and then urge your child’s head teacher to read it! We need to work together to make the changes we need.

    Notes

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