Take a step back in time: school dinner experience challenge

School meals have come a long way in the past decade. Despite serving some of the most nutritional and varied dishes across the country, they still seem to get bad press.

So, specialist education caterers, Alliance in Partnership (AiP) have knuckled down with one of their contracted school partners, Whitecross Hereford, High School and Specialist Sports College, to quash those bad memories of concrete chips and soggy semolina!

A rare chance to experience a 21^st century school dinner with a flavour of the past was served on May 25^th and the dining hall garnished with numerous special guests and excited pupils and staff.

Since the introduction of the School Food Standards in 2006, passionate chefs, kitchen and operations teams have strived to continually improve the nutritional value, ethical sourcing of ingredients and tantalising presentation and taste of the humble school meal.

The dining hall is no longer a dreary wooden floored chamber with dull moulded plastic trays full of slop and pre-Nanny McPhee kitchen matrons! They are bright, colourful and cheery social communities where staff and pupils munch on yummy hot and cold food across collective banter between lessons.

School meals past and present

At 12 noon and 1pm, two special meals were presented at Whitecross Hereford High School; a battle between the old and the new.

A traditional concoction of cheese flan, pork and pineapple curry, and sausage and bean pasty, typical dishes from the 60's and 70's, were up against the contemporary cheese and tomato quiche, Thai green curry and bacon and cheese slices.

The early lunch saw special guests joining the Facilities Manager Lorna Maw, Food Technology Teachers, AiP Managing Director, six Year 10 pupils and Pam the lunch time supervisor.

The second lunch was prepared for the pupils and a testing time to see how the traditional servings compared to the new with some valuable feedback gained from all concerned. Some pupils loved the traditional tastes whereas other were a little unsure of flavours such as the simple curry powder; a prime example of how cultural differences impact on food development in schools.

"I was really pleased with how the day went, the concept was a real success," explains AiP Operations Manager Anne Bounton-Preece.

"Interestingly the most popular dish was the cheese flan from the old menu and the least popular was the cheese and tomato quiche from the new; personally I loved the Thai curry!"

Amazingly the flans were actually made by the original catering manager from Whitecross from around 1970, Mona Allen with succulent homemade pastry. No mean feat as Mona is now 90 years old and still making her famous cheese flan for her great grandchildren, one of whom now attends Whitecross himself. Unfortunately, Mona couldn't attend the special lunch but her daughter Pam, who worked alongside her mum in the kitchen, now a lunchtime supervisor at the new modern Whitecross School, attended in her place.

AiP kitchen staff prepared fresh samples of dishes, found locked away in old Hereford and Worcester Council cook books, such as liver and bacon burgers (by special request of the Head Teacher) and semolina pudding, offering pupils and guests the chance to savour a 'blast from the past' and vote on their favourite.

Anne gave the semolina a modern twist with vanilla and coconut; the coconut addition persuading most of the students to sample the offering. Some of the teachers however preferred the memory of their original school version.

"The liver and bacon burgers surprised many pupils as we just told them they were burgers and when they tried them they liked them; some of the teaching staff were not so brave!" comments Anne.

"The rice pudding was a huge hit, but it was a struggle to stop David Weller, our Managing Director at AiP from eating it all!"

"Donna and the kitchen team worked so hard to help make the day a huge success and we could not have managed without this support, especially from Zena and Nicky who did all the savoury dishes and Allison who went to help Mona make the cheese flans."

All meals, despite their age, adhere to the Food Standards governing all education sector meals with full nutritional analysis. The displays created by AiP's Marketing and Nutritional Manager, Elaine Armstrong, attracted a huge amount of interest resulting in the decision to utilise them for the next parent's evening with samples of the food.

 

"General feedback from pupils and staff was to bring back the cheese flan and sausage and bean pasties and please could there be more butterscotch tart," laughs David Weller.

"Anne and her catering team at Whitecross are now thinking of having another look back through the old recipe books they found at the back of the shelf to try some more revivals!"

Whitecross Hereford High School and Alliance in Partnership

Whitecross educates approximately 900 pupils and has excellent school exam results, the highest they've ever been with 90% of students achieving five or more A* to C grades at GCSE level in 2010. The school strongly believes in helping the students as much as possible with healthy and holistic ways to improve all aspects of learning, including that of nutrition.

AiP have managed the school's catering provision for 11 years, operating out of Whitecross's kitchen hub and preparing fresh meals on a daily basis for the school canteen and also three satellite schools.  These schools act as feeders to Whitecross providing continuity for the transfer from primary to high school and hopefully removing the pressures pupils sometimes associate with the move. Head teacher, Denise Strutt, often visits the satellite schools to judge competitions throughout the school terms to instil familiarity and trust.

Maintaining a relationship and partnership focus is paramount between Whitecross, AiP, and Integral and this is also encouraged amongst pupils.

Activities are centred on curriculum themes and AiP is currently providing free bananas for all students taking exams, to help with concentration and nutritional intake.

A Japanese theme and food day is planned to motivate pupils and staff in raising money for the earthquake victims. Some of the pupils will be doing a sponsored 'stay awake' at the school premises with a healthy snack of baked beans on toast being supplied by AiP.

The school leaver's prom night is always a huge event in July and an American Independence Day promotion is planned in the summer with a BBQ focus.

This tight knit focus supports achievement incentives, green initiatives with cost management processes constantly being reviewed, trialled and implemented to ensure the best practice and service possible.

Biometric cashless systems have played a significant part in increasing school meal uptake and improving administration procedures.

EHO officers, from the Scores on the Doors scheme, recently visited the AiP kitchen on 14^th March, awarding five out of five in accordance to the Food Safety Act 1990 and the head cook, Zena Ree's was awarded the AiP Excellence Award for Best Cook at the beginning of the year.

So, it's all excitement and tasty food where the kitchen staff is concerned. After all, if concrete chips and lumpy pink custard with hard chocolate cake were the only meals on offer, would you enjoy school meals?

Fortunately at Whitecross, most people love them!

Notes to Editor

Anne Bounton-Preece, Operations Manager

Mobile: 07967 024539

Alliance in Partnership

Office: 0121 5520121

www.allianceinpartnership.co.uk

Whitecross Hereford, High School and Specialist Sports College

3 Elms Road, Hereford, County of Herefordshire HR4 0RN

01432 376 080

Head Teacher Denise Strutt