Food for Thought won the Soil Association’s Silver Food for Life catering mark for its food, and serves more than 76,000 meat-free meals to schoolchildren in Merseyside every week.
The Silver award means the not-for-profit – which is owned by the schools it caters for – uses local food, freshly prepared every day and free of additives and hydrogenated fats.
The next step is the Gold award, which encourages school meal-providers to offer “a variety of non-meat dishes… as part of a balanced, climate-friendly diet”. Food for Thought is already well on the way to achieving the award: its 17 schools have been enjoying a meat-free start to the week since May.
“People want reassurance that their food, and their children’s food, is fresh, honest and additive-free. They want to know that the issues they care about, from animal welfare to climate change, have been taken care of,” said Jan Potter, Food for Thought’s chairperson and headteacher at Belle Vale Primary School.
More than 4,200 schools across the UK are involved in the Food for Life initiative, which aims not only to put healthy food on the table but to teach children about its importance for their lives and the environment.