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29 July 2025
Greenshaw Learning Trust has made remarkable progress in school catering over the past year. Twenty-nine schools within the trust have earned Food for Life Served Here Bronze certification, meaning over 5,700 healthier and more sustainable meals are served daily.
Greenshaw High School has gone further, achieving silver certification, a clear sign of its commitment to food that supports health, climate, and nature.
All 30 trust schools, both primary and secondary, have also earned the Green Kitchen Standard, which recognises caterers who manage energy, water, and waste sustainably. Additionally, Greenshaw High School holds Soil Association Organic Certification for its school growing plot, underlining the Trust’s dedication to fresh, responsibly sourced food.
We spoke with Luis De Abreu, Head of Catering and Florentin Radu, Head Chef at Greenshaw High to learn more about their journey and what these achievements mean.
Tell us a bit about you, your job and the company you work for?
Luis: I’m the Head of Catering at Greenshaw Learning Trust, a multi-academy trust with schools across the South of England. I oversee the catering operations across all our schools, ensuring we provide healthy, complaint, and appealing meals for our students and staff. My role involves managing budgets, developing new food concepts, supporting staff development, and leading our strategy to improve food quality and sustainability across the trust.
What was the original motivation to achieve certification?
Luis: Our motivation was twofold: to demonstrate our commitment to healthier school meals and to build trust with parents, students, and other stakeholders. We wanted an independent benchmark to show that our meals meet high standards for quality, sustainability, and food safety. Achieving Served Here certification also aligned with our wider trust values around health, wellbeing, and environmental responsibility.
How did you find the process of gaining certification?
Luis: The process was thorough but very rewarding. It gave us a structured framework to evaluate our current operations and identify areas for improvement. Collaboration was key, we worked closely with our regional managers and school kitchen teams to ensure consistency and meet the required criteria. It helped strengthen our internal processes and improved how we communicate our food ethos across the trust.
What does having Food for Life Served Here, Green Kitchen Standard and organic certification mean for you and your customers?
Luis: It brings reassurance and pride. For our customers, students, parents, and staff, it signals that we care deeply about the quality of our food, the environment, and the health of the school community. For us, it’s a visible recognition of the work that goes into delivering a high-quality catering service, and it supports our aim of setting a consistent, trust-wide standard that reflects best practice.
What top tip would you pass on to certificate holders, or someone starting out on the certification journey?
Luis: Start by building strong foundations, focus on compliance, sourcing, and staff training. Involve your teams early and make them part of the journey; their engagement and understanding are critical. And don’t be afraid to ask for advice or share good practice, it’s a journey best done collaboratively.
What’s your biggest accomplishment, or light bulb moment through the Served Here certification process?
Luis: Achieving bronze accreditation across all our schools, and silver at Greenshaw High School, was a huge milestone. It proved that high standards can be met consistently across a large, diverse organisation. A key light bulb moment was realising how certification brought our teams together with a shared purpose, it created a sense of pride and ownership that has had a lasting impact on the culture of our catering service.
A key light bulb moment was realising how certification brought our teams together with a shared purpose, it created a sense of pride and ownership that has had a lasting impact on the culture of our catering service.
Why is it important for the school to grow its own food?
Florentin: Growing food at school helps our pupils understand where their food comes from, and why fresh, healthy food matters. It also encourages sustainability by reducing food miles. Most importantly, it gives children a sense of ownership, pride, and responsibility for the environment. That and the slides presented in the canteen help students to better understand the future of the planet.
What do you enjoy most about growing at school?
Florentin: There is something special about watching a tiny seed turn into something you can eat! Gardening brings learning to life and gives children the chance to connect with nature, work as a team, and have fun along the way.
How does growing and using organic food in school meals make a difference / why have you chosen to grow organically?
Florentin: We have chosen to grow organically because it is safer for our pupils, better for the environment, and supports local wildlife. By avoiding harmful chemicals, we protect the soil and encourage healthy growing practices. It also helps children learn the importance of natural, sustainable methods of food production.
How does using organic, school grown produce benefit the school meals and the pupils?
Florentin: When our school meals include food we have grown ourselves, it makes lunchtime even more meaningful. Our school-grown produce adds freshness, flavour, and nutrition to meals, while also reinforcing healthy eating habits and a deeper understanding of where our food comes from. Sometimes they said: “Chef this tomato is not like a tomato! It is a watermelon? “That is different between normal vegetables and our organic school-grown vegetables. And that makes me proud about what I’m doing.
