05/05/2009

New dining experience for pupils

Reddish Vale Technology College along with their school meals provider, Solutions SK, Stockport Council's wholly owned company, have been taking part in a new school meals pilot.

The 'Meal Deal Pilot' aims to see if 'high street style' meal deals can be used to both comply with the Government's Nutritional Standards and increase uptake of school meals.

Reddish Vale Technology College caters for 1,400 pupils aged 11 to 16 and was one of just six schools in the country selected to take part in the pilot scheme organised by the School Food Trust.

The college has worked in partnership with Solutions SK, who currently provide around 16,000 school meals every day to pupils in over 100 primary and nine secondary schools across the borough.

The pilot involved consultation through focus groups with pupils, parents and teachers into the types of foods that should be included in the meal deals and how to put together a healthy meal. The foods chosen by the focus groups were analysed by a nutritionist from Solutions SK and put into a healthy meal deal menu.

As part of the pilot the college dining room had a facelift and new branding to keep it inline with high street favourites. Again, pupils were consulted on how the dining room should be branded, and chose the new colour scheme.

The new menu went live on Monday 27th April and was officially launched by pupils from the school, Ian Jones, double bronze medal winner at the Beijing Paralympics and one of Stockport County's Mascots. They also had the chance to sample the new tasty meals for themselves following the official ribbon cutting ceremony that took place.

The Headteacher, Jenny Campbell at Reddish Vale, said: "I would like to thank Solutions SK for all the work they have done with us in putting together and nutritionally analysing the new meal deal menu. The trustees and governors of the school are delighted with the results so far and are confident that the menu will be fully compliant with the Government's Nutritional Standards before the September 2009 deadline.

"I would also like to thank the School Food Trust for giving us the opportunity to be involved in this pilot scheme and for contributing to the cost of decorating the dining room."

The pilot scheme is part of a nationwide project, and the results from this school and the other five schools taking part, will ultimately be rolled out through meal deals in secondary school across the whole of the country.

For more information about the new healthy meal deals available for pupils at Reddish Vale Technology College visit www.yougo4it.co.uk/stockport

Pictured (from left to right) are pupils, Joshua Cooke, Madia Hussaini, Bethany Goodier and Joseph Biskup with Ian Jones and a mascot from Stockport County cutting the ribbon to mark the launch of the new menu.