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St. Katherine’s is awarded Silver Mark for its fantastic food culture

20 May 2009

Students, Staff and Governors at St. Katherine’s School, in Ham Green near Bristol, are celebrating achieving the prestigious Food for Life Partnership Silver Mark, the first secondary school in the country to do so.

St. Katherine’s works with the Food for Life Partnership to transform its food culture and that of its community by reconnecting the young people with growing, cooking, eating and appreciating climate-friendly, healthy and real food.

In their quest to achieve the Food for Life Partnership Silver Mark, St. Katherine’s has made significant improvements to their excellent catering and now serve a range of locally produced and organic choices, whilst all chicken, bacon and sausages served are Freedom Food certified or free range and all fish from sustainable sources.

The school has a cooking club, and pupils get to cook with and eat the produce from the school’s own organic garden.

Stephanie Quayle Headteacher commented” All of this is possible due the hard work and dedication of our catering team whose commitment to providing outstanding food for our students is second to none. Teachers and support staff run sessions in the organic garden and the Cookery Club which the students really enjoy. We are now aiming for Gold and hope to be the first secondary school in the UK to achieve that too!”

The Food for Life Partnership Gold Mark is the ultimate award that recognises schools, which use practical learning experiences to re-connect young people to the food they eat, following the journey from field to plate.

Recently Ms Quayle and Mrs Diane Lewis, St. Katherine’s Catering Manager, were invited to Highgrove in recognition of the results achieved by the school as part of the Food For Life programme. Both spent a wonderful day admiring HRH Prince Charles’s organic farm and herb gardens and talking to other schools.

St. Katherine's School has also been given £2.8million by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) to build a brand new training kitchen, restaurant and catering facilities to teach the new Hospitality Diploma. The school is hoping to employ a chef manager who will train the students and given them work-based experience. Diners will also be able to book a table at St. Katherine's Restaurant and sample some of the tasty treats.