Food for Life Partnership

• Training for school cooks
• Food for Life Catering Mark
• Food quality and provenance events

Training for school cooks

Every school cook should have the following qualifications:

• Basic Food Hygiene Certificate
• HACCP – Hazard analysis and critical control point training

Further training available includes:

• NCFE Intermediate Certificate in Nutrition and Health

School FEAST Centres
The School Food Trust is implementing a £2 million capital grant from the Department of Children, Schools and Families to help set up a regional network of Food Excellence and Skills Training (FEAST) Centres. The FEAST Centres were announced and details can be found on the School Food Trust website.

The Food for Life Partnership is working in conjunction with the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester which has FEAST Centre status delivering the 2-day foundation course designed by Jeanette Orrey. This course will hopefully enable more caterers to then go on to further their knowledge with courses below:
• Level 1 VRQ Award in Providing a Healthier School Meals Service
• Level 2 Support Work in Schools
• Level 3 Support Work in Schools
• Level 2 NVQ in Professional Cookery
• Level 2 NVQ in Food processing & cooking

In addition, the School FEAST centre or partnership may offer other qualifications, courses or specialisms to serve local needs, or respond to developments in relation to the school food agenda. School FEAST centres or partnerships will select courses as appropriate. Examples could include, but are not limited to, menu planning skills (including seasonality), sustainable development agenda, quality control in purchasing and supply. Potential learners include any member of the school workforce engaging with the school food agenda, including school cooks, lunchtime supervisors, teachers, bursars etc.

For more information go to www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk

Ashlyns Training Kitchen
Jeanette Orrey, school meals policy advisor to the Soil Association, joined forces with Ashlyns Organics in June 2005 to open the Ashlyns Training Kitchen in Essex for school cooks.

Ashlyns Training Kitchen is purpose-built to replicate the facilities found in a typical school kitchen. This provides the perfect base from which practical courses can be delivered to a very high standard. The two-day intensive training course covers everything from knife skills and cooking through to food safety, kitchen management, menu design and how to implement the whole school approach. Advice is also given on seasonal menu planning to meet the nutrient-based standards and Food for Life targets, while keeping to a budget. Everyone completing the course also receives a certificate and a signed copy of Jeanette’s book ‘The Dinner Lady’.

For more information contact 01277 890821 or visit the Ashlyns Training Kitchen website at www.ashlyns.co.uk.

Garden Organic Training events
Garden Organic run training events for Food for Life Partnership school cooks and catering staff.

The training events help catering staff in the following ways:

• Enables participants to understand when locally grown fruit and vegetables are in season
• Teaches ways to work with pupils to ensure food is successfully grown through to harvest
• Explores how food waste from school can be reduced by making compost
• Engages the wider school and community in growing activities
• Holds interactive sessions cover seasonality, gardening techniques, planning your plot, growing in containers and Health & Safety issues

For details of the next training event visit our Events pages.