Food Glorious Food!

Getting children involved in menu planning and using local suppliers have proved a recipe for success at Foremarke Hall, as Sue Grief explains

- Sue Grief

The question of what are the best ways to get children to eat healthily is regularly debated. It is a subject that parents, health professionals, schools and even celebrity chefs discuss.

At Foremarke Hall, Repton’s Prep School, there’s a small but very important number of rules followed by the catering team that see both pupils and staff enjoy a varied and healthy diet.

One of the key ways in which Foremarke educates young people about food and diet is through its Food Council which actively involves pupils in the menu choices. Members of the Council consist of a representative from each house, a pupil from each Year group from Year 3 upwards, the school nurse, the Head of Catering and the Bursar.

The Council discusses and decides upon the menus for the forthcoming half-term and the pupil who speaks best during each meeting gets to pick their favourite dish, which is put on the menu the following week.

A vegetable of the month is also identified – in March it was parsnip. The vegetable of the month is used in as many ways as possible to demonstrate versatility to the children.

The pupil members of the Foremarke Food Council disseminate healthy eating information to their peer groups. This generates an interest in food and empowers young people to make informed choices about what they eat.