11:32am Thursday 11th March 2010
By Andy Carswell
A GREEN-fingered school is celebrating this week after winning a top prize for the quality of its food.
Great Missenden Combined School scooped a bronze award in the Food For Life programme – and are going for gold next year.
To get the award, the Church Street school had to make sure 90 per cent of their school meals are prepared on site.
School nutritionist Victoria Greaves said 60 per cent of the 360 pupils have school-cooked meals each day – compared to the south-east average of 27 per cent.
She said of the National Lottery-funded Food For Life scheme: “It's about transforming food in schools and the wider community. It's about going back to nature and showing children where food comes from. We were horrified children didn't know where their food comes from.
“Only one in five families sit down and eat a meal together, and we offer that every day.
“It's not easy to change so much in one year. It's very exciting to see that children are enjoying food and cooking, which I think is key.”
An allotment has been set up at the school to teach children how to grow their own food, and farm visits and cookery classes have also been organised.
Yesterday staff from the Yo Sushi restaurant in High Wycombe visited the school to teach Year Five pupils how to make their own sushi as part of a project on Japan.
Year Five teacher Tim Williams said: “We were hoping to go to the restaurant and have a look, but they said they would come to the school. They didn't charge us – we couldn't have asked for more.”
He added: “Most of the children haven't tried sushi, let alone made it. I'm dead impressed, they are doing a great job.”
Staff at the school are hoping to achieve the silver award by the end of the academic year, before going for gold next year.
Headteacher Rozalyn Thomson said: “Lunch is the best lesson of the day because children learn so much when they are trying new foods and learning about different cultures.
“I think children really respond to it when they are learning from what they eat.
“It's been such a stupendous effort to get children eating healthy food in schools.”
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