Education caterer Pabulum has created a cookery book of pupils' favourite recipes.

Pabulum's business development team decided to compile the book following a positive response from children and parents to Pabulum's range of healthy option school meals across many schools on the Isle of Wight.

Kevin Phillips, operations manager for Pabulum on the Island, explained: "Both children and parents have been so enthusiastic about the school meals that we decided to compile a book of their favourite recipes - especially when several Mums told us that their children actually preferred our take on a number of traditional favourites to their home-cooked versions!"

The first edition of the Isle of Wight Primary Schools' Cook Book was launched after two pupils, whose pictures are featured in the book, were invited by printers Crossprint to start the presses.

The book will be available for sale through participating schools and proceeds will go to charity. Pabulum will also showcase it at several outside events over the next year as proof that nutritious, healthy school meals are the way to go.

"We're delighted with the book," added Phillips. "Not only does it truly reflect Pabulum's commitment to delivering the best school meals possible, but also demonstrates the children's enthusiasm for our meals - and they will always be the best ambassadors we could wish for in spreading the word that healthy is best."

Contract caterer Pabulum has continued its efforts to encourage healthy eating in schools by taking its Healthy Bunch characters on the road.

The characters, originally launched as part of a campaign three years ago, were updated last April and according to Pabulum, form an important part of Pabulum's campaign aimed at raising awareness of healthy eating in schools.

The latest initiative sees two of the Healthy Bunch's six characters - Dizzy Dog and Sammy Sheep - brought to life to accompany Pabulum's operations managers on school visits to deliver height charts and facilitate healthy eating discussions.

Each character has its own special nutritional message, designed to help children understand the basics of good nutrition and eat more healthily.  Dizzy Dog's message is that meat has iron in it to help children do their exercises and stay fit, whilst Sammy Sheep's message is focused on the benefits of vegetables.

The remaining four Healthy Bunch characters have similar messages promoting the benefits of diet staples such as milk, oats, fruit and pulses.

Jonathan Gawthrop, managing director, explained: "We always work closely with our schools to help them promote the advantages of healthy eating and spread our passion for honestly good food.

"These visits have been great fun and a highly effective means of getting our messages across."

Mrs Gillian Cocklin, head teacher, South Ascot Village School - one of the schools involved in the visits - agreed: "The children love the Healthy Bunch characters and they've really enjoyed this visit from Dizzy Dog.

"It's a great way to encourage them to buy into the concept of healthy food and learn about its benefits."

Healthy eating goes up and accidents and truancy go down when children are kept in school at lunchtime.

These are the findig of a pilot project in Glasgow where pupils at eight schools were kept in the grounds and offered activities alongside healthy food, according to the BBC.

More children ate school meals and staff reported less truancy and improved safety, as a result.

The findings will no doubt be welcomed by Rob Rees who called on headteachers to adopt a lock-in policy upon his appointment as chairman of the School Food Trust in February last year.

The pilot scheme, run by Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Centre for Social Research and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, has now been rolled out to a further seven schools.

It was carried out among S1 pupils between August 2009 and June last year.

Staff reported a reduction lateness for class while pupils said there was less pressure to go out even if they did not want to and less teasing and bullying.

Funding for school meals will continue to be available, thanks to supporters of the Caterer and Hotelkeeper School Meals Matter campaign, held in conjunction with the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA).

Months of concern over the future of the School Lunch Grant have been laid to rest after it emerged from the comprehensive spending review that funding will continue beyond the grant's expiry date of March 2011 as part of the expanded baseline budget for schools.

Caterer launched the campaign with LACA ahead of this year's general election, calling on the government-elect to demonstrate a firm commitment to the importance of school meals.

Mark Lewis, Caterer editor, explained: "We launched School Meals Matter because we all stand to gain from continued funding of school meals provision. As parents, we want to see our children nutritionally-equipped to study and exercise at school. As taxpayers, we want to see the burden on the National Health Service caused by obesity and type two diabetes eased.

"And, as stakeholders in the hospitality industry, we want to ensure fresh generations of children who appreciate flavour, enjoy eating out and may perhaps even go on to work in the industry themselves. I'm delighted that we and LACA were able to galvanise the hospitality industry to exert pressure on the government to take the right decision."

School meal champions have welcomed the news but there is still disappointment that the cash intended to be spent on healthy lunch provision has not been ring-fenced.

"After months of lobbying and mobilising the support of the industry, I am delighted that with the support of Caterer and Hotelkeeper, the message from LACA members has been heard by the coalition Government, and despite the cuts to public services, the School Lunch Grant will continue and will be included in the schools budget," said Beverley Baker, past chair of LACA and campaign figurehead.

"The money will not be ring-fenced, which would have been even better, but caterers will be able to negotiate with schools to ensure the money is spent as intended, on school food."

According to Andrew Etherington, food service consultant at Andrew Etherington Associates, the Government decision not to make cuts to education spend coupled with an increase in head teacher engagement in school meals could mean that the unprotected funding may not be raided for other purposes as feared.

"I have ample evidence of head teachers becoming very involved in the quality of their school meals but they are very disappointed that the capital spending on new buildings and facilities has been slashed by 60%," said Etherington.

"They still feel that the quality of the facilities they're given makes a massive difference."

The School Food Trust (SFT), the body set up to spearhead school dinner reform post-Jamie Oliver, is to be transformed after having its funding cut in the Government's quango cull.

The trust, which currently receives public cash, is to continue as a charity and will also set up a complementary Community Interest Company by April 2011. The move should grant it greater commercial flexibility to support its work to increase the healthy school meal uptake in England.

Although yet to be defined, the Government has also signalled that the trust will take forward a number of activities for the Department for Education, the details of which will be revealed in next week's Comprehensive Spending Review.

SFT chairman Rob Rees said: "We are confident that our new status as a Community Interest Company and charity means we will be able to work with everyone involved in children's food and drink to inspire improvements in food and education and give our young people a great start in life."

The Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) said it would continue to work as closely as possible with the SFT within the framework of its new status, and once it had a clearer understanding of its new role, aims and remit.

However LACA national chairman Sandra Russell, looking ahead to next week's Comprehensive Spending Review, said the school meal service in England still needed frontline support.

"LACA would like to see the Government emphasise to schools and local authorities the importance of school meals to the development of young people and how it should form a key element of the whole school approach to their education, if we are to tackle the obesity crisis and decrease NHS costs in the longer term.

"It is essential, therefore, that the health of children and young people is not the target for cuts but, on the contrary, remains a top priority budgetary item."

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WHAT IS A COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY?
Community Interest Companies (CICs) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes.