The impact of the Food for Life Partnership

Welcome back! We are delighted to share our new report 'Good food for all' with you. It brings together the findings of the independent evaluation of the first five years of the Food for Life Partnership. We hope you enjoy reading about the incredible impact you have had.

As you will see, the evidence suggests the programme is having a significant positive impact in four main areas:

• Children's health
• Tackling inequalities
• Improving education
• Local enterprise and sustainability.

Good food for all

Download a copy of the report from the Food for Life Partnership website and watch a short 5min film highlighting the impact in schools across England.

Some of the key findings include:

- 28% increase in primary school age children reporting eating 5-a-day

- 45% of parents report eating more vegetables

- Free school meal take up rose by 13 percentage points over 2 years and by 20 percentage points in secondary schools, helping close the gap for disadvantaged children

- 5 percentage point increase in school meal take up over two years at a time of declining national take up, making meals more cost-effective

- Twice as many primary schools received an Ofsted Outstanding rating following their participation as well as increased attainment

- Over £3 social return on investment for every £1 spent on Food for Life menus, mostly in the form of new jobs in the local economy.

Roast Dinner Day 2011 - Sign up

After the momentous success of last year’s Roast Dinner Day, you are invited to take part in the Food for Life Partnership’s second Roast Dinner Day celebration on 12 October 2011. Last year, 6,850 schools and 28 caterers took part in this event, serving over ONE MILLION roast dinners on the same day. Roast Dinner Day celebrates the work of the Cooks Network, schools and caterers, and engages parents and the local community.

If you would like to take part in Roast Dinner Day 2011 then sign-up online.

We've put together some top tips to help you get involved.

Forton Primary School in Lancashire took part in last year’s Roast Dinner Day. Headteacher Paula Wells said, “It was very well received with lots of very pleased people saying how lovely it was to come in [to the school]. This is an event to show off the quality of our dinners and family style dining, where the older children help the younger ones, sitting down at the table together in a nice atmosphere with lovely, healthy food.”

Applying for an award?

Award ceremonies are happening up and down the country - for a full list check out the website and get in touch with your regional coordinator for more information.

Are you in the South West, London, South East or East of England and thinking of going for Silver or Gold? Get your application in soon and you could be coming to a regional ceremony. (SW - 30 Sept, SE/London/EE - 31 October).

Northern awards ceremony

In July, eleven schools and four caterers in the North of England celebrated the fabulous work they've been doing to transform food culture in their local communities at a Northern Awards Ceremony in Manchester . Food writer and TV presenter Stefan Gates presented ten schools with the prestigious Food for Life Partnership Silver award and one school with a Gold award. Haworth Primary School in Haworth, West Yorkshire is the first school in the Yorkshire & Humber to achieve Gold. Council caterers Cheshire East and Kirklees collected their Food for Life Bronze Catering Mark, while the School Food Company and Oldham Council were presented with the Silver Catering Mark.
Talking about Haworth's two-and-a-half-year journey to Gold, Headteacher Janet Parkinson says: "Working on the Food for Life programme has helped us shape our personalised 'green' ethos and curriculum at Haworth Primary, and has significantly improved our school. It has helped our children to grow up making healthier choices and be fully prepared to embrace the challenges of sustainability in their adult lives."

Discover and celebrate Organic September

This month we’re celebrating Organic September, an annual celebration of all things organic. There are lots of ways for your school to celebrate too. Find out about organic farms near you, join the Big Organic Eat-in and take advantage of events and promotions happening throughout September. Get involved!
 

this season

Get cooking
September and October are great months for home-grown produce and adaptable recipes like Calzone Pizza are needed to make use of the last of the summer crops. Tomatoes, spinach, courgettes, rocket and green beans can all be squeezed into the folded pizza – but don’t overfill or it will burst open in the oven.

Get growing

Depending on what sort of a summer you had, there may well be plenty to harvest in the garden this autumn. Lift and store maincrop potatoes for use throughout the winter. Beans and courgettes will carry on growing until the first frosts arrive, although they will produce less to harvest as the temperature drops. Leeks, parsnips and kale are ready to start harvesting from about early October; depending on which variety you have chosen. It is traditional to wait until after the first frost to harvest these, as that improves the flavour. Read more growing tips for the months ahead

Visit a farm
Autumn is well on its way. Which can mean only one thing down on the farm…It’s harvest time. And with it comes a whole range of learning opportunities both inside and out of the classroom. Take a look at our new Get on my land activities
For those of you who have yet to initiate a farm link, there couldn’t be a better time to do so... all the information you need to set up your visit is online. For those of you with established links, this is a great time to get back out to see the fruits of your link farm’s labours.
For more information, advice and guidance with setting up a farm link, contact your regional Farm Links Officer.

new resources

National Award in Food Safety Qualification - Level One
The National Awarding Organisation HABC, the Food for Life Partnership and the Design and Technology Association (DATA) have worked together to develop a Level 1 National Award in Food Safety qualification aimed at Key Stage 3 in schools. The qualification which will launch at the end of September 2011 has been developed in consultation with key food technology teachers to be specific for both the domestic and education setting, whilst also complementing the food technology curriculum.
 

Please send your contact details to foodforlife@highfieldabc.com to register your interest in this qualification or to find out more information please contact the Qualification Manager at HABC, Paul Burton

Shout about what you're doing

Don't forget to update your school's blog and let everyone know about the great work you're doing. You could win Blog of the Week and receive a prize for your school!

Find out more ways to promote the work you're doing at school.

The future

Finally, as you know, our five year Big Lottery funding ends in December but we wish to assure you that the programme will continue to transform food culture in schools and communities, with schools still able to apply for awards and access resources and support.. We'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you for your continued hard work and successes, we'll be writing to you again with more detail of things to come.

Libby Grundy and Emma Noble
Co-directors of the Food for Life Partnership