Football star Jonathan Woodgate helps promote healthy school dinners

Football star Jonathan Woodgate will today kick off a partnership between the Tottenham Hotspur foundation and the School Food Trust designed to encourage children to choose healthy school meals.

Woodgate, who captained Spurs to the club’s 9-1 victory over Wigan at White Hart Lane on Sunday, will visit pupils at St. Paul's and All Hallows Infant School in Tottenham, north London, to launch the year-long alliance with the School Food Trust’s Million Meals programme.

The scheme will encourage children in Haringey and surrounding inner city areas to choose healthy school meals through a series of workshops and assemblies with top footballers which will take place throughout 2010. Children will also receive a training session from the UK’s top football freestyler Billy Wingrove. 

The partnership is the first time that the School Food Trust, the organisation responsible for transforming school food, has worked closely with a Premier League football club over a significant period of time. 
 
Chief executive Judy Hargadon said: “We aim to encourage more young people to have healthy school dinners in order to help them do well and reach their potential. We hope our partnership with Spurs will encourage more schools to get on board.
 
“The team will encourage children to see the link between eating well and succeeding – Jonathan is living proof that if you want to get to the top you need to give your body the best fuel.” 

The London borough of Haringey has above average levels of childhood obesity in Year Six (23.2% of children, against the national average of 18%) and matches the national levels for those starting school (9.6% children obese, against national average of 10%).  

Million Meals is the School Food Trust’s campaign to help schools to help themselves to increase their meal take up, with the ultimate aim of seeing one million more children eating healthy school meals by the end of 2010. So far, more than 5,500 schools across the country have signed up. 

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By Janie Stamford

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