LACA – National School Meals Week

11^th to 15^th September 2006

“Eat Real with a New School Meal”

Primary Schools in North Yorkshire have been taking part in this year’s National School Meals Week organised by The Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) and backed up by a national TV advert campaign.

The Jamie Oliver “School Dinners” TV series broadcast in 2005, revealed the true scale of children’s lack of nutritional knowledge and food awareness. As we saw, Jamie discovered just how difficult it is to encourage children to eat more healthily and was shocked by the fact that children could not identify many common fruit and vegetables as well as the source of everyday foods.

As an annual event, National School Meals Week seeks to create a positive link between the classroom and the food service area and to facilitate a whole school approach to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle which combines a balanced diet with increased physical activity. The week is an excellent promotional vehicle to encourage greater school meal uptake and to demonstrate the high professional standards employed in education catering.

This year it is  focused on improving young people’s recognition of different fresh ingredients, the importance of their nutritional value and learning an important life skill for the future - how to create for yourself a proper balanced meal on a plate.

Councillor John Watson, Executive Member for Children and Young People’s service comments that “amidst growing concerns over rising childhood obesity and the increased risk to health in adult life of a poor diet in childhood, National School Meals Week is an important promotional platform for the role of school meals”.

Pupils having a school meal during the week will be given an activity sheet to complete which could win them a £25 gift voucher and their school a performance of “Captain Cholesterol & the Grannies from Mars” by the Quantum Theatre Group. There are four such prizes available for Primary Schools across the County.