Food for Life
Food for Life (FFL) aims to transform school food culture and make good food the easy choice for everyone. The programme aims to ensure that children have access to healthy, sustainable food, and a practical food education including cooking, growing food and understanding where food comes from. The programme has awarded a Food for Life award to around 1000 participating schools to celebrate their progress and acheivements. Training and support is provided for schools to develop leadership around food, providing pupils, teachers and others a voice for decision making around food. Food for Life supports schools to embed food education by providing training and resources for teachers on cooking, food growing, and farm visits.
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“The awards package is invaluable for developing your healthy school meals, lunchtime experience and food curriculum. The expert CPD packages support you every step of the way." Jason O'Rourke (Washingborough Academy)
* TOP TIP *
'Work with the children to carry out an audit of some of the food in your school meals to identify which have the most food miles'
How is the project linked to climate change and sustainability?
Under-pinning all of Food for Life’s work is a desire to promote and increase the consumption of sustainable and climate-friendly food through increased awareness and demand. The practical skills that pupils learn will equip them with the knowledge to make planet-friendly choices: growing and cooking with seasonal and local produce. Additionally, the Food for Life Served Here catering standards provides an independent guarantee that food on the school menu is fresh, traceable, and with increasing amounts of seasonal, local and organic produce as schools progress from bronze to gold awards.
Who is involved?
Food for Life has developed a whole school approach, linking all aspects of food education to school meals. Physical and online courses train teachers, cooks and wider support staff to inspire and provide confidence, knowledge and skills, enabling staff and pupils to take forward and embed positive approaches within the school day to day activities.
How are participants involved?
The Food for Life whole school approach aims to involve the whole school in transforming their food culture. This will involve engaging all the school staff including teachers, governors, cooks, classroom assistants and of course, pupils. The whole school will work together to develop a plan to include food education in the curriculum and improve the ingredients of the school meals. The Food for Life awards scheme provides a framework for schools to follow. Supporting resources provide recipes for teaching pupil to cook; ideas for growing in the school grounds; advice for visiting farms and incorporating food education into the curriculum. Children are encourage to have a say in the school food culture through ‘pupil voice’. The Food for Life Served Here catering award provides support for caterers in using more fresh, seasonal, local and organic produce in school meals. The awards have different levels of Bronze, Silver and Gold for schools to progress through.
Key steps
1. Go to the Food for Life website to enrol
2. Receive access to your membership pack, which includes teaching resources and tips on how you can get the children involved in learning about where their food comes from.
3. Work with colleagues and the children to plan a programme of food related learning activities in your school, linked to the curriculum.
4. Contact a local farm to arrange a visit and learn about the journey that your food takes to get on the table.
5. Set up a garden in school and start growing.
6. Liaise with the school cook or caterer to ensure that FFL awarded meals are served in the canteen.
7. Get cooking in lessons.
8. Think about running a school farmers’ market to help the children learn further about where food comes from, while also bringing some money in for the school.
9. Report all of your learning back to Food for Life.
10. Celebrate your Food for Life progress by applying for a school award.