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."

Tell what you think about the School Food Trust on Table Talk >>

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.

Sandra Russell became chairman of school meals body the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) this month, just as school meals funding looks set to suffer under the chancellor's sharpened knife. Chris Druce spoke to her about the challenges ahead.

Caterer So you've returned to the role of chairman again

Sandra Russell Yes, I've been a member of LACA since its start in 1990 and was previously national chair in 2007/08. I had hoped to avoid a controversial year but it looks like that's not going to happen.

Caterer The School Meals Grant ends next March. What happens if there's no more money?

SR My own Warwickshire region [where Russell is head of catering] saw a downturn in school meals following Jamie Oliver's campaign and ended up running a deficit. We've now built the service back up, and in percentage terms are where we were before the TV programmes. [If there's no more funding] all the hard work of the past few years could be undone.

Caterer Ahead of next week's spending review it's been leaked that the School Food Trust will lose its funding. What effect would this have?

SR The trust has worked tirelessly to implement the Government's agenda. It has also provided an advisory service during a period where there have been a lot of questions and concern. LACA has always tried to find common ground and has worked closely with the trust, while agreeing to disagree on certain issues. However the time has come to let school caterers continue to take the service forward based on the solid foundation that the trust has helped build.

Caterer What risk does the spending review on 20 October carry for school meals?

SR A potential risk factor is that the previous Government said future school meals money might get rolled up into the main schools grant. If it's no longer ring-fenced and times are tough, schools might spend the money elsewhere.

Caterer Child benefit is to be cut from 2013 for middle income families. Will this affect the service?

SR On its own I don't think it will affect school meals uptake but if there's a range of benefit cuts in the spending review and parents' income is diminished it could become an issue, especially as parents don't tend to price up the cost of packed lunches in quite the same way [as school meals], as it's lumped in with their main weekly food shopping.

Caterer Overall you sound optimistic about the future

SR The investment we have had in the service has been most welcome, although it has probably replaced no more than 10% of what was taken out [from the late 1980s on]. We now have a firm base to build upon.


● Caterer will be taking a detailed look at LACA, its history and achievements next week (22 October issue) as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

It's still not too late to get involved in this year's National School Meals Week (NSMW), which starts 8 November.

Bigger and better than ever before, NSMW is organised by the Local Authority Caterers Association as a showcase for the healthy school meals service.

This year, there's a range of themed days throughout the week, with Get Eating marking the start. The Monday event will see parents and local dignitaries invited along to take part in Britain's biggest school lunch.

Hospitality plays its part on Tuesday under the banner of Get Supporting, which will see businesses across the sector supporting their local schools.

For example, in Cambridgeshire, pupils from a primary school will be visiting their local Hotel du Vin to see their winning competition dish put on the hotel's restaurant specials board. The children will also get to make healthy smoothies and learn how to lay a table for service in the bistro. The hotel's chef and bistro manager will then return with them to school to help with the lunch service - run by Cambridgeshire Catering Services.

The week also includes Get Dancing, Get Remembering and Get Giggling days as well, and there are loads of free resources for teachers to download to make sure the initiative is a huge success. The resources, such as videos suitable for assemblies, can be used throughout the year to reinforce the healthy eating message at no cost.

National School Meals Week takes place from 8-12 November and full details and resources are available on the website.

The Soil Association has partnered with the Children's Food Campaign and other school food and children's health campaigners to continue the fight to save school dinners.

Following the conclusion of the School Meals Matter petition, the Save Our School Dinners campaign needs your support as there has still been no official commitment to our nation's school food service.

In fact, the Government's decision earlier this year to scrap the proposed extension to free school meals, health secretary Andrew Lansley's criticism of Jamie Oliver's approach to school dinners, and the leaked document last week that listed the School Food Trust as one of the taxpayer-funded bodies facing the chop demonstrate the importance of supporting this campaign.

So sign the petition now - it asks the government to protect the new healthy lunches and promote good food education at school.

Time is running out though, as the petition will be handed in ahead of the Spending Review on 20 October but it only takes a minute to do.

If when you've signed you want to go a step further, the Soil Association is calling on you to write to your local MP. Full details on how to do so are available here.

Eden Foodservice is on target to retain the bulk of its school meals contracts in Croydon, despite the council's decision to cease central management of the borough's service.

Following the Government's policy of allowing schools to take responsibility for their own commissioning needs, Croydon Council said in August that it will not be retendering for the central school meals contract when the current contract concludes in April next year.

Eden Foodservice, the specialist school catering division of Rentokil Initial, services the majority of Croydon schools and last year became the first catering firm to be given the Silver accreditation Food for Life catering mark for a group contract by the Soil Association for its work in the borough.

It faced losing a large proportion of its business as a result of the council's move, however managing director Simon James has told Caterer that like a "phoenix from the ashes", much of the service will continue.

"We've so far had the opportunity to meet with 60% of the schools in Croydon and to date we only have one school that is considering another option, and that is only because the numbers concerned there are very small.

"Everybody else is incredibly positive and I am confident that we will retain a significant number of those schools based on what we've done over the past few years. It is a flagship authority in terms of its school meals service."

James said that while they will now have numerous clients rather than one, increased head teacher engagement "post-Jamie Oliver" means that there will be very little impact on the day-to-day running of the service.

However he voiced concerns that other local authorities might follow Croydon's lead and opt out of a central service. "It's a tremendous burden to put on schools on top of everything else. I am hopeful that it is an isolated decision," he added.

The new chairman of the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) has called on the coalition Government to invest the money saved from cutting School Food Trust (SFT) funding on front-line services.

Speaking to Caterersearch.com, Sandra Russell, who officially assumes her role as LACA chairman next week, said that after news the SFT funding was for the chop in next month's Comprehensive Spending Review, ministers should redirect at least some of the saved cash towards ensuring the continuation of the school meals service.

Russell said the trust, set up in 2005, had done a good job of a difficult task but had always been intended to exist for a finite time only.

"The trust has worked tirelessly to implement the Government's agenda, and has created a range of marketing materials to help school caterers that simply wouldn't have existed otherwise. It has also provided an advisory service during a period where there have been a lot of questions and concern.

"LACA has always tried to find common ground and has worked closely with the trust, while agreeing to disagree on certain issues. However the time has come to let school caterers continue to take the service forward based on the solid foundation that the trust has helped build," Russell said.

In May the newly elected coalition Government slashed the SFT's budget by £1m as part of its initial spending cuts aimed at reducing the UK's massive deficit. However, a leaked document published in the Daily Telegraph today named the SFT as one of numerous quangos that would get the funding chop in October's spending review.

The SFT was unavailable to comment.