Food for Life Partnership

• Kemi Atijosan - Eagle Solutions Services Limited
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Kemi Atijosan - Eagle Solutions Services Limited

Olukemi Atijosan is a Food for Life Partnership Advisor and managing director of Eagle Solutions Services Limited

“My vision is for all schools to embrace food and school meals as integral to the learning process,” says Olukemi (Kemi) Atijosan, managing director of Eagle Solutions Services Limited (ESSL), a consultancy dedicated to empowering education establishments and not for profit organisations to take control of their catering services. “My greatest achievement since Eagle Solutions was established in 2002,” she says, “is getting schools to recognise that food has a major part to play in academic achievement.”

Kemi has spent her entire career in catering. In the early years she worked in various catering management roles within the NHS, as well as with local government bodies. In between bringing up a family of four, Kemi undertook a full-time MBA course at Strathclyde University, Glasgow in order to hone her business management skills.

Her first experience of the school meals service was when she joined the London Borough of Lambeth in 1990 to manage their school meals service following the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority. When the post became redundant in 1996, she returned to catering management for Sodexho, then in 1999 moved back to local government catering, this time as client manager in Hackney.

Kemi was shocked to see how the quality of the school meals service had deteriorated over a decade of competitive tendering, and began to formulate plans to start a consultancy to empower schools to take control of providing fresh meals for their pupils. Eagle Solutions was launched in 2002 and found a ready market for its services. Early clients included two secondary schools; Cardinal Pole in Hackney was helped to set up in-house catering and Thomas Moore in Haringey wanted training for their cooks and catering staff.

Recalling those early years, Kemi remarks that “The schools which succeeded in continuing achievement were those where the headteachers took the initiative in changing the food culture in the school and acknowledged the supportive role ESSL can provide.”

ESSL recently extended its services to offer bespoke menu design and nutrient-based nutritional analysis to meet the new legal requirement introduced for primary schools in September 2008 – extended to secondary schools in September 2009.

Commenting on this development, Kemi said, ”We believe that our bespoke service is particularly useful for schools who are embracing the Food for Life Partnership programmes.”

Kemi welcomed the establishment of the Food for Life Partnership in 2007, having worked closely with the lead partner organisation, the Soil Association, since 2003. A number of the schools Eagle Solutions worked with in the early years were encouraged to try for the Soil Association School Food Awards scheme; now schools are encouraged to aim for the FFLP Bronze, Silver and Gold Marks. “It is important for schools to receive outside recognition as they strive towards improving the standard of meals for pupils,” Kemi commented, “particularly as this is one way to involve parents and governors in the school community.”

Talking about the aims of the Food for Life Partnership, Kemi remarked that “Caterers cannot achieve this culture change by themselves – they need to be supported by those in charge of a school’s destiny, so the Food for Life Partnership has been a positive influence.

“As a society,” Kemi continued, “we are becoming more aware of what we eat, how our food is grown and marketed, and how the fast food culture has led to grossly overweight people and the resultant health problems. By incorporating the benefit of healthy diets in the education of our young people, I believe we are contributing to a better future. It is especially important that young people growing up in urban environments learn how satisfying it is to ‘grow your own’, ‘cook your own’ and lead a healthy social life, which are two of the core aspects of the Food for Life Partnerships.

“My colleagues and I at ESSL are passionate about food as a tool for education, and food education as a tool for health. We enjoy empowering schools to effect change.”

For more information about ESSL
http://eaglessl.co.uk/