National framework, local partnerships

The Food for Life Partnership award framework offers schools a great way to benchmark their achievements nationally and helps them to make progress via the whole-school approach that is key to achieving the evaluation outcomes. Schools receive access to the training and resources they need to offer practical food education, engage their community and work with their caterer to raise school meal standards and take-up.

The FFLP approach is open to innovation to meet local needs, and has already been taken up by a wide range of local partnerships to deliver against goals on public health, education and sustainability. For example:

• In Lincolnshire, the local authority has dedicated a full-time post to FFLP, using it as a tool to develop the school meals service during an important transition in which nearly every school has replaced packed lunches with hot school meals. 189 schools and 17 caterers in Lincolnshire are now involved in Food for Life and over 3,000 Food for Life Gold school meals are served each day.
• In Doncaster, FFLP works in conjunction with Doncaster Catering Service and the Doncaster Healthy Schools team to engage pupils in transforming their food culture, with the School Meal steam now offering the Food for Life accredited Bronze menu to all primary schools in Doncaster.
• In Oldham, the benefits of FFLP are widely recognised, with Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council providing a Silver menu to 98 schools across the borough. The Director of Children’s Services and the Director of Public Health have worked together to deliver a clear message to schools, jointly writing to head teachers to encourage them to engage with FFLP.

If you would like to explore what value FFLP can bring to the table in your area,or if you are already in a FFLP ‘hotspot’ and want to keep up the momentum, then we would be delighted to hear from you.

E: fflp@foodforlife.org.uk