All aboard for healthy eating at school

A PILL school has been selected as one of six across the South West to launch a project to improve meals and food education.St Katherine's School has been chosen to take part in the Lottery funded Food For Life Partnership which will see the introduction of a weekly organic day and special healthy eating cooking sessions.To kick off the initiative, Thursdays will now become organic day with a free healthy breakfast and lunch being served up to students, parents and staff. The changes will also see the catering team sourcing locally produced, fresh and organic foods to be used in school meals.Once a week the school will host the Food for Life Partnership Cooking Bus which will welcome on board parents, staff and community groups to work alongside pupils and run cooking lessons.A garden education officer will also help students develop an organic growing area where they can cultivate food to be used in school meals and links will be set up with local farmers. A special nutrition group will also be set up to plan changes to the school's food culture.Headteacher Stephanie Quayle said: "It is more important than ever before that young people learn in school about the impact of food on their health and that of the planet. "On current trends, by 2020 more than a quarter of children will be obese and children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. "A fifth of our climate change impact comes from the food we eat."By becoming a flagship school we want to inspire, rather than cajole, our young people to eat a healthy, climate friendly diet by giving them an opportunity to see how food is produced and to cook and grow their own."The Food For Life Partnership works to transform school and community food culture across England by harnessing the ideas of young people and the public.It aims to work within schools to give the local community access to seasonal, local and organic food and teach the skills people need to cook it themselves.