Award Criteria

Food for Life awards are centred around four areas of development, which link to the criteria and create an action framework for your school:

  • Food Quality
  • Food Leadership and Food Culture
  • Food Education
  • Community and Partnerships

Here’s just a summary of what your school will achieve to get an award at each of the levels – you can read the full bronze criteria here.

NEW for 2023

Foundation award schools:
  • Have completed over half of the Bronze Food Quality criteria for schools
  • Have implemented a whole school approach to food and have considered elements of the food environment across the four pillars: Food quality; Food leadership & food culture; Food Education; Community, partnerships & parent engagement
BRONZE schools:
  • Meet Bronze Food for Life Served Here Award standards which shows that school food is healthy and uses seasonal ingredients that are at least 75% freshly prepared 
  • Involve pupils and parents in planning improvements to school menus and the lunchtime experience, boosting school meal take-up
  • Give every pupil the opportunity to visit a local farm, and take part in cooking and food growing activity
SILVER schools:
  • Have committed to improve their school food culture by developing a school food policy
  • Serve school meals on proper crockery, not plastic ‘flight trays’
  • Meet Silver Food for Life Served Here Standards which shows that school food is healthy, ethical, and uses some local and organic ingredients
  • Have a cooking club, where pupils get to cook with and eat the produce grown in the school growing area
  • Involve parents and the wider community to get involved in food education via food-themed events
  • Our food is healthy, ethical, and uses local ingredients. We use a minimum of 5% organic ingredients in our menus
GOLD schools:
  • Act as hubs for their local community, actively involving parents and community groups in cooking and growing activities 
  • Meet Gold Food for Life Served Here standards which shows the food served is healthy, ethical, uses lots of local ingredients and is animal and climate friendly, including a minimum of 15% organic and 5% free range 
  • Pupils choosing to eat a school meal is the norm
  • Are actively involved in the life of a local farm and active in planning and growing organic food for the school

Applying for your Food for Life Awards 

"The Food for Life award framework supports schools to take a stepped approach to transforming food culture"

Criteria and Guidance

Download the Bronze Food for Life Schools Award Criteria and Guidance here

Criteria and guidance

Download the Silver and Gold Food for Life Schools Award Criteria and Guidance here

Silver and Gold criteria and guidance

Top Tip

If your school is working towards or has achieved a Food for Life award, be sure to make the criteria easily available to parents, so they can see all the fantastic work you are doing. Why not link to the criteria on your website or in a school newsletter?

Foundation Awards

Download the Foundation Awards Documentation

Foundation Award Image

One Pager Documentation

Award Flowchart

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