In 2008 Nottinghamshire County Council’s Catering Team embarked on a new mission - to attain the Food for Life Partnership Mark.

Schools and caterers can join the Partnership and transform their food culture by working towards three awards; bronze, silver and gold. To find out more about the Food for Life Partnership, the awards and how to get involved, you can visit their website at www.foodforlife.org.uk.

Our Catering Team started making changes to our school meal service back in 2003 with the appointment of a dedicated Food Development Officer. They were tasked with overhauling the service for both primary and secondary schools. This meant drastic changes for the existing meal service – new menus were developed with no place for reformed products, frozen ready meals, deep fried food or spaghetti hoops. In 2004 we began a pilot with a new meat supplier who could source local, outdoor reared produce. We also sourced fresh, local vegetables for the kitchens.

By the end of 2006 the school meals service had seen a major turnaround. New equipment had been installed in kitchens so that meals could be prepared fresh on site, giving us tighter control over the ingredients, with locally sourced meat and fresh local vegetables. Levels of salt, fat and sugars had also been reduced along with unnecessary additives to create healthier, balanced meals.

The changes we had implemented by 2006 meant that we had already made significant in-roads into achieving the bronze mark when we enrolled on the Programme. To be awarded this mark we had to make sure that the food we served met the following standards:

• Contains no undesirable additives and hydrogenated fats
• At least 75 percent of dishes on the menu are freshly prepared
• Meat is farm assured as a welfare minimum
• Eggs are from cage free hens
• Menus are seasonal and in-season produce is highlighted
• Menus cater well for all dietary needs
• Continuous professional development is available to catering staff.

We therefore set our sights on the challenge of achieving the Silver Mark. Attaining this would mean making even more changes to our supply chains and focusing our work on food quality and provenance. In order to achieve the silver stage we had to ensure that:

• A range of locally sourced items are on the menu
• A range of certified organic or MSC certified items are on the menu
• Poultry, eggs and pork are produced in line with standards set for the Freedom Food Scheme as a welfare minimum
• No fish is served from the Marine Conservation Society ‘Fish to Avoid’ list
• Information is on display about the origins of fresh produce
• At least one product on the menu or in vending machines meets fair trade standards.

In February 2009, we were very pleased to be awarded the Silver Caterers Mark. It was an enormous achievement and great recognition for all the hard work that had been put in to improving the meal service.

Nottinghamshire’s Schools Catering Service was the first authority to be awarded the silver mark for introducing the standards across both their primary and secondary schools – a total of around 350 schools! You can read more about how we achieved the awards in our case study on Food for Life’s website

We will be continuing our work in this area in a bid to achieve the next step – the Gold Mark, so watch this space to find out more!