The Food for Life Schools Award is a framework for schools to teach children about food and where it comes from. By completing actions, you’ll use food to enhance your leadership, enrich the curriculum, build community links and transform your dining environment. Pupils at Food for Life schools learn how to cook, grow and eat fresh, healthy food that’s good for them and the planet.
Food for Life’s whole setting approach brings the school together to make good food a priority.
The award has three levels. Every school starts by working towards bronze:
Bronze: You’ll learn about what makes a good food culture and investigate what’s already happening in your school
Silver: You’ll build upon your bronze achievements to embed a good food culture and involve parents and the local community
Gold: You’ll ensure the changes you have made are lasting and celebrate how far you’ve come. Gold schools pioneer best practice around good school food
Our framework guides schools through a series of actions to complete, across four key areas:
Food Quality – Looking at the food you serve in the dining room and making positive changes where you can
Food Leadership and Culture – Putting practices and policies in place to make good food a priority and making sure everyone’s voice is included
Food Education – Learning practical skills like cooking and growing Wand finding out where our food comes from
Community and Partnerships – Letting parents and the local community know about the great work you are doing and getting them involved
You’ll be able to access resources, templates and personal support from our team to help you to complete each action.
Once you have completed all sections for a level, you’ll achieve your award. To help you celebrate and share the news, we’ll send you a certificate and a banner to display at school.
We have transformed our whole school culture through this fantstic initiative which enables our children to learn more about where food comes from and the benefits of healthy eating and food sustainability. Thanks to SOil Association Food for Life for their support.
Working towards a Food for Life award is positive for the whole school community.
Pupils learn to cook and grow food, as well as how to make food choices that are good for people and planet
For school leadership teams, Food for Life achievements provide evidence that your school is meeting Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework, supporting children to keep themselves healthy
For teachers, working with Food for Life enriches the curriculum through practical skills and by creating strong links between food education and core subjects
Parents can feel confident that their children are being offered healthy options which can positively impact their health and well-being.
Schools with a Food for Life award build stronger community connections
Places have more people working together to prioritise good food
Food for Life has made a real difference across the school. It’s had quite a large and significant impact, particularly towards pupil wellbeing.