Page 12 - link magazine

12 The Link Magazine • December 2005
Hope for healthy helpings at Swindon schools
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Swindon children can look forward to better school dinners after a healthy eating forum ended with
agreement to work for high quality meals in all schools, reports Lucy Proctor.
w^
Ir The Food For Life seminar held in many of Britain's
on 7 November also saw a promise local authority areas. - 1^^
Home-Made Organic from Mayor of Swindon Ray Fisher She told guests that l lt'u.
Baby-Food to back much needed reform of if the will to reverse
delivered to your door school dinners. He said he was a what she called 'the
'tremendous fan' of Jamie Oliver demise of school
Freshly prepared organic baby
and asked how he could use his meals' is there, it will "
food frozen on the same day position to encourage change in be done. +if%
for babies 6 months + Swindon schools. Speaking in the `' ♦/
Call for a menu: Councillors, teachers, dinner la- week when it was re- ^
dies and local farmers were among vealed that one in
01734 727304
50 guests at the evening at the De three children had ^'"
e: [email protected]
Vere Hotel, to discuss how to im- no idea what chips
www.purepots.co.uk prove the nutrition of Swindon's are made from,
youngsters. Jeanette advocated a
The keynote speaker was school return to the basics. T
Purton House dinner lady Jeanette Orrey whose She said a whole
Church End work inspired Oliver's TV expo- school approach is
Pution. Swindon sure of the appalling state of meals needed to put kids
back in touch with
Tel: 01793 772287 The best in Britain their food culture,
Lets Do Lunch, seminar co-or- and criticised food
"aue 4 4€ t(t4t ]anisers with The Link, were technology classes Campaigning for better lunchtime provision in
lamed as providers of Britain's that fail to teach Swindon, Jeanette Orrey and the Mayor of Swindon
pest school lunches at the BBC cookery.
Call for details about our good Food Show on 24 Novem- She defended dinner ladies, of the problems that need to be
Organic Box Scheme )er at the NEC. pointing out that most are well addressed if children's health is to
=
trained and should be seen as key
be improved. Almost 28 per cent
Lethbridge Primary School was
Vegetables • Fruit • Meat • Eggs :hosen as the Soil Association members of a school community. of children aged 2 to 10 in the UK
Deliveries & drop off points in Swindon. ood for Life School of the Year. They should be proud of their are overweight or obese, and one
Cirencester, Wootton Bassett, Broad The awards, sponsored by The work; "I do not mind being called in five 4 to 18 year olds eat no fruit
Hinton. Marlborough. Wroughton Times, Highland Spring and the a dinner lady," she said. in an average week.
www.purton-house.co.uk Soil Association, were presented The theme of rediscovering tra- "We still have malnourishment,
)y Jamie Oliver. ditions and local producers ran and we have the opposite problem
through the evening organised by of over-consumption," she said.
The Link, the Soil Association and She warned that today's chil-
E indon school meal providers dren are eating their way into an
O Let's Do Lunch. early grave, and are unable to make
Sonia Oliver of Coleshill Organic healthy choices even when given

III( PARTNERS PI( Farm said sourcing ingredients the option of fresh or organic op-
_- -Hniaar+eaury locally could get children inter- tions. "These diseases are not vis-
ested in real food again, by show-
ible until later life," she said of
ing them where it comes from. heart disease, type two diabetes
Hilary Pitts, and other health
Group Director of issues likely to de-
Children's Serv- velop in un-
ices for Swindon healthy children.
Council, called for "They are storing
an action plan to up problems for
be in place by 2008 later life."
detailing how Guests were
3\vindon schools treated to a typi-
will meet the Gov- cal school dinner
ernment's strict cooked by Lets Do
new nutritional Lunch, who pro-
standards. vide meals at
But she high- Lethbridge and
lighted the diffi- King William
culties posed by Street Primary
school funding, Schools. The
w\ ith money meals are made
,tretched across a Hilary Pitts, from fresh, local
massive range of addressing the seminar ingredients, or-
school services ganic wherever
and not ringfenced. She said the possible. With only 37 of Swin-
question before many don's 83 primary schools still of-
West Swindon Centre headteachers is, 'do I put a hot fering a hot meal, Lethbridge pu-
meal in front of the children or do
pils are in a lucky minority.
I put a teacher in front of them?' The meeting set up a task group
Tel: 01793 870462 Fiona Dickens, County Dietician of teachers, councillors, meal pro-
for Public Heath at the Primary viders and local growers to dis-
Care Trust, highlighted the scale cuss how to spread good practice.