Well done to Little Learners for leading by example and becoming the first ever Early Years setting in West Northamptonshire to achieve a Food for Life Early Years Bronze award, and in just five short months!
The Food for Life Eating Well event provided me with so many easy ways to make eating and drinking healthy and fun. I was immediately inspired to share them with parents and their children.
Cherry Fold Primary School in Burnley have been working with Food for Life Lancashire to engage parents and pupils by sharing simple and healthy packed lunch ideas. After attending the Food for Life Eating Well event Joanna Heys, Pupil and Family Manager at Cherry Fold Primary, was inspired to share her learning with the school community.
As part of their project to achieve their silver Food for Life award, Nelson St Philip’s Primary School organised a dedicated ‘Food for Life Day’ which provided an abundance of growing and cooking activities for pupils, teachers and parents – a wonderful whole school approach to food.
Food for Life visited St Winefride’s in June to run a session on school food culture and the dining room experience with the school’s SNAG (Student Nutrition Action Group). Pupils learnt about how they can
make changes to their school food culture as well as debating food-related issues.
The children have thoroughly enjoyed being able to watch their plants grow from seeds to seedlings, then into real, flowering plants. They check and
care for the plants daily to help with their learning of ‘Understanding the World’. Seeing their reactions is wonderful.
With no grass and lots of tarmac, Nelson St Philip’s Primary School in Lancashire had to get inventive when establishing a growing space. To get some inspiration, they attended a Food for Life training session and worked with the Food for Life team in Lancashire for further support. Armed with compost and lots of pupil creativity, they set up their own ‘Grow Our Own’ area.
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Darlaston wanted to revolutionise breaktime snacks. Despite making good progress towards a good food culture, unhealthy options remained popular at breaktimes, with few children bringing in fruit or vegetables. To remedy this, the school launched a competition to encourage pupils to eat fruit and vegetables.
Food for Life lead and class teacher, Rhianna Mills, tasked the pupil team of Wellbeing Champions with improving lunchtime. Before engaging with Food for Life, the school had ad-hoc discussions with the children about lunchtimes, but this is now a consistent process and one they will develop further.
It's been extremely insightful to listen and understand lunch time experiences directly from the children and equally, the children have thoroughly enjoyed taking responsibility for being that voice and making change. We are all looking forward to continuing our journey with the award and making more positive changes!
The Cool Food Pro team recently taught pupils about the real value of food, highlighting the energy, water, people and fuel used to grow, process and transport food.
Food for Life runs Cook and Share each year to get the nation making and enjoying good food. In West Northamptonshire, three settings were supported with £100 worth of cookery equipment as a way to get them involved in the good food movement.
Pupil voice is at the centre of Deepdale Community Primary School’s Food for Life movement, with pupils canvassed on the playground with the help of a megaphone!
The children have loved to plant the strawberries and have enjoyed watching them grow. The nursery children also enjoyed eating them as snack, they got very excited! We look forward to growing next year.
Happy Days Childcare is located on the grounds of their local primary school, adjacent to woodlands which they use regularly. They were the first early years setting to engage with Food for Life West Northamptonshire and have attended hands on training and webinars whilst using Food for Life resources to support their activities.
Billesdon Primary School recently visited a local farm to learn about farming and the food system. Discover what they learnt, and how it benefited their learning here.
The Eco Warriors at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, located in the heart or Loughborough’s diverse city centre, have been empowered by school leadership to inspire their peers, improve school lunches, and reduce waste.
We have commissioned Food for Life because it offers an evidence-based, empowering programme of support which we can target in our efforts to tackle health inequalities across our diverse county.
Food for Life Leicestershire has been commissioned by Leicestershire County Council’s Public Health team, working with schools to champion healthy and sustainable food.
Abbey Primary School in Bloxwich, Walsall achieved their bronze Food for Life (FFL) award back in February 2023 and are still working hard to embed food education and a positive food culture, not only in school, but beyond the school gates.
Pupils from Kingfisher Primary School in Medway recently enjoyed a visit to a wheat farm to learn all about where their food comes from. The farm, situated near Sittingbourne, Kent, is a wheat supplier for Warburtons.
Hooray for Sir John Moore Primary School who have completed their Food for Life Gold Award!
The ‘Eco Warriors’ at St Mary’s have been empowered by the school leadership to inspire their peers, improve school lunches, and reduce waste. They are making a
difference in their school, community and beyond!
In the Leicestershire village of Newtown Linford, signs of growth are beginning to appear at the village primary schools' new garden area. The area has been developed by pupils, staff, parents and the wider community, with a bit of help to kick-start from Food for Life.
The Birkbees Nursery Group is a collection of four nurseries in Huddersfield. The nurseries range from having 32 places to 85 in one setting and cater for a diverse group of children from many different backgrounds. The Birkbees Nursery Group was one of two nurseries who were the first to achieve the national FFL Early Years Award after participating in the pilot programme, supported by Kirklees Council.
Michael Drayton Junior School is a large school of 500 pupils with a diverse catchment. As part of their Food for Life work, they have embraced growing to the full with great success, both in terms of the impact on the children and the growing of produce itself.
Westlea Primary School is a culturally rich school in Swindon with over 300 pupils from a range of backgrounds. Since joining the Food for Life programme in 2003 they have transformed both their food provision and food education, recently achieving the prestigious Food for Life Gold Award.
Since January 2012, Barrow Hill Primary School and Food for Life have been working together to encourage everyone in the school and community to learn more about the food they eat, tracing it from farm to fork.
Clifton Green Primary School (CGPS) serves pupils from varied demographics in one of the most deprived wards in the City of York. This case study explains how holding a school farmers' market and introducing pupils to small local producers and business owners had a positive impact on the career aspirations of many students.
This case study explains how Eastfield Primary school used the Food for Life framework to increase their school meal take up to an impressive 97% (100% on some days!)
Greenfields Community School in Nottingham first joined the Food for Life schools programme in January 2008. They enrolled having already done some fantastic work to develop a thriving school garden and were keen to use the Food for Life award framework to extend this good work to improve their food provision and food education.
Hob Moor Community Primary School and Hob Moor Oaks Special School share a purpose built kitchen for lunches but conversations with the school SNAG Group highlighted to staff that lunchtimes were becoming stressful for the children.
Bridge Junior school and Shaftesbury Junior School in Leicester both received special awards for their outstanding work with Food for Life.
Ling Bob Junior, Infant and Nursery School enrolled on the Food for Life programme to raise the quality and uptake of their school meals. This case study explain how they achieved this not only among the students but also among schools staff by using the Food for Life framework.
New Fosseway School pupils have a range of special educational needs and to ensure the Food for Life (FFL) programme worked for these pupils, the FFL lead at the school met with an FFL Local Programme Manager and created a plan based on the Food for Life framework and the Healthy Food work the school was already involved in.
Park Academy in Boston struggled with a fragmented school community and low school meal uptake, due in part to over 62% of pupils coming from migrant backgrounds. Using the Food for Life framework to consult pupils and their families, the school were able to significantly increase their school meal take up and encourage the wider community to take part in school activities around food.
In developing the Food for Life for hospitals, our expert team, funded by the Big Lottery Wellbeing Fund, has worked with three NHS Trusts to co-develop a framework for health-promoting and sustainable hospital food, and to support the initiatives shared in this case study.
Well done to Little Learners for leading by example and becoming the first ever Early Years setting in West Northamptonshire to achieve a Food for Life Early Years Bronze award, and in just five short months!
Spring Lane began their Food for Life journey back in 2023 when the West Northamptonshire (WN) Public Health team committed to transform food culture in some of the most deprived areas of the county.
Park Primary School in Colne has proudly achieved Food for Life Gold, making history as Lancashire’s first primary school to reach this milestone. This recognition celebrates the school’s commitment to embedding a positive food culture at the heart of school life and the transformational work they have put into this.
