School's recipe for success

From the archive, first published Tuesday 15th Nov 2005.

SWINDON AND PROUD OF IT: CHILDREN at a Swindon primary school will be keeping their knives and forks crossed after their school was short-listed for a prestigious food award.

Lethbridge Primary School in Lethbridge Road, Old Town, is one of five schools across the country vying for three gongs in the Soil Association's School Food Awards at the BBC Good Food Show on Thursday, November 24.

If successful, youngsters, teachers and cooks from Lethbridge will have a private audience with TV chef Jamie Oliver, who will give a cookery demonstration before presenting the awards to the winning schools at Birmingham's NEC Arena.

The winners will share £15,000 worth of school kitchen equipment in prizes and material for food education.

Primary schools across the country submitted entries for the awards, supported by Highland Spring and The Times health supplement Body & Soul.

"I saw the competition advertised on the Soil Association website and decided to put the school forward," said Pam Shipperbottom, joint-director of Let's Do Lunch, which run the school's catering department.

"We managed to get through to the last five and a panel of judges came around and tasted our food and talked to the children.

"We have three menus throughout the year, one for spring, summer and winter and, hopefully, the judges will have been impressed by what we were serving.

"All our meals are cooked from scratch from raw ingredients and they meet all the Soil Association's food for life targets."

A typical winter meal at Lethbridge can include an organic hotdog made with an organic baguette freshly baked in school, home-made tomato sauce and stir fried vegetables, while home-made cottage pie is another favourite for the 230 or so children who eat in the school's canteen each day.

"The children love the food because it is full of flavour," added Mrs Shipperbottom, who took over the running of the school's catering with fellow parent Laura Illsley after it was threatened with closure in December 2003.

"You have to educate children because if you feed them rubbish it ruins their pallet."

Lethbridge is in the running for all three awards, which encompass the quality of food served at school, food education and a prize to cover both aspects.

"It would be great if we could win one of the awards," said Mrs Shipper-bottom.

"We are going to take some children up to Birmingham with us as well as our wonderful cook Anna Spooner, who is in the kitchen day in and day out."

Jamie Oliver said: "Instead of looking at how bad school food can be, this is a great way to celebrate what good things are going on in school kitchens around the country."

Lethbridge is up against Hurlford Primary School in East Ayrshire, Thomas Fairchild Community School in London, Chandlings Manor School in Oxford and Landscove Church of England Primary School in Devon.

Kevin Burchall

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