Last week, I had the pleasure of working alongside the London Borough of Havering Public Health Team, helping schools create their school food policies. As a catering service within schools, we want to make sure we support all schools with their aims and goals in regard to health eating and work together to ensure the best outcome possible for our children’s future.

Our menus in schools meet the Government School Food Standards, if a school food policy doesn’t support the work we do, it could undo the health benefits our menus provide. For example, if schools provide breakfast club, tuck shops during the day offering fast foods and confectionary, it works against everything our menus are set out to do. The main purpose of our school meals is to help children to learn to make healthy choices, and then fingers crossed they continue to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle in the future.

Following the Public Healthy England recommendation in September 2016 to reduce the amount of sugar consumption, we reviewed our recipes and practises and reduced the amount of sugar in our desserts by 15%, the majority of our desserts are now 50% fruit based. We look to continue to reduce this to 20% by 2018. This highlights the importance of the schools food policy and the need to work together with the school and the parents to ensure this continues.

We understand sometimes as parent’s financial constraints can affect the decision to purchase a hot school meal. Packed lunches can be a chore, especially if you children are fussy or just want items such as a chocolate spread sandwich and crisps. Eating behaviour however is really influenced by peers, if little Timmy has Potato crisps, then you’ll be certain that little Jenny will want them too! By having a set school food policy this helps to ensure everyone on an equal healthy playing field.

Don’t forget, for all KS1 (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) school meals are free, being funded by the Government; this would be optimum time for children to try a healthy hot lunch.

Lunch time is super important to your child’s wellbeing whilst at school: provides them with energy for the rest of the school day, helps the concentrate and provides nearly a third of their daily nutrition.

If packed lunches are the ideal for you, here are some ideas for what to put into a packed lunch to ensure your children are consuming a healthy balanced lunch:
1. Savoury (including salad) : When considering a carbohydrate for this, I would recommend wholegrain carbohydrate due to the slow release of energy. For example: Tuna and Salad Wrap, Chicken Salad Wholemeal Pitta Bread, Pasta Salads etc.
2. Dairy: Always good to look for low saturated fat and low sugar dairy items, as some dairy products aimed at kids are riddled with both. These could include Rice pudding, Fruit Yoghurt, Cheese portions, and Custard or Yoghurt tubes.
3. Fruit & Vegetables: Fresh pieces of Fruit such as a Banana, Grapes, chopped up Apple, Satsuma. Maybe Carrot or Cucumber sticks, Pepper fingers or Cherry Tomatoes.
4. An extra low fat/low sugar snack: Crackers, Rice Cakes, plain Breadsticks or plain Biscuits.
5. Drink: Hydration is important throughout the day. Fresh water should always be available at schools; therefore you shouldn’t have to provide one.

As a service we try and incorporate ingredients that aren’t only sustainable but benefit to others who produce them. HCS supports the work Fairtrade do, by ensuring all our units only purchase fair trade sugars, orange juice cuplets and bananas.

Fairtrade is a non-profit organisation that has an important cause, making sure that farmers and workers receive decent prices for their products, have decent working conditions as well as fair terms of trade with suppliers. This helps developing farming and working communities who may not have control over their futures.

The farmers and workers decide for themselves how to invest the premium they receive from the Fair Trade organisation. This premium is on top of the minimum price the farmers and workers receive for their produce which can help improve their communities and business for example: schools, health care, sanitation or better equipment for their businesses.

As consumers it’s important for us to look out for opportunities where we know, not only are we helping protect the environment for future generations, but improving the lives of others who supply us with the ingredients we use on a daily basis. As well as it improving the quality of food products in your diet all by looking for the Fair Trade Certified™ label. Fair Trade products are restricted; they don’t use harmful chemicals, not genetically modified and are deemed as Organic. Some of the best known Fair Trade products include: Coffee, different fruits (bananas, dates etc.), honey, beans, sugar, cocoa and nuts.

Why not try out some of the ingredients in the below recipe we use in our primaries school, if you want to take out the sugar, maybe think about substituting this with Fairtrade honey.

Banoffee Sponge (Makes 6 portions)
 Ingredients;
100g Self-Raising Flour
95g Fairtrade Caster Sugar
100g Sunflower Spread
2 Free Range Eggs
1 ½ Fair trade Bananas
65g Fairtrade Dates

Methods:
Firstly place the dates into a saucepan and add a little amount of water, to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat the dates on a low heat until the dates are soft enough to mash (Can be blitzed). Add a little boiled water (if required) so the mixture is soft and pliable

1. Place margarine and sugar into the bowl or mixer and cream together. Add the date mixture and roughly chopped bananas, and cream together.
2. Add the eggs and mix again.
3. Slowly add the flour and beat well for 5 minutes.
4. Place the mixture into a greased and lined sponge tin.
5. Cook in the oven at gas 4 / 180 degree C for approximately 20 minutes, firm to the touch and golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven and allow cooling for a few minutes before turning out.

As promised – a quick update on the LACA SCOTY event…

The event was held on Tuesday 10th January, at Nestle HQ in Gatwick. Michelle our entrant was in the afternoons cook off, after an hours journey Terry and Michelle arrived early to enable them to settle into the day and get a feel for the competition. Meeting her fellow competitors, put Michelle at ease as they were all in it together- creating a friendly atmosphere.

The competition kitchen was restricted to Entrants and Judges only, however it was like a goldfish bowl with viewing windows for supporters to watch over the competition at all times. Michelle eased into the competition quickly and was focused on her dish/ the task ahead, despite the many distraction of the photographer. She completed the dish in the allocated time of 90minutes and presented to the judges with a smile on her face!

Below are the pictures of the final dishes submitted to the Judges.

After the judge’s deliberations, the prize/award ceremony was held. Although Michelle wasn’t successful in going forward to the national finals, she demonstrated great skill and professionalism and made HCS very proud. Michelle received positive feedback from the Judges and praise from other Competitors for her dish as well as further points she can take with her in regards to any future competitions.

Michelle thoroughly enjoyed the day and is excited and planning for next year’s competition. Bring it on…

Well done Michelle, we are all very proud 🙂

 

Recently, I have been working closely with one of our school chefs who entered the LACA SCOTY (School Chef of the Year Completion). This is an Annual event held by LACA (Local Association for Catering in Education) to find the most imaginative chef who can produce a two course meal suitable for a year 6 pupil. It needs to be healthy balanced meal that relates to the School Food Standards and the Eat Well Plate 2016.

When coming up with a meal to enter for the competition, we had to consider list of MAGGI® or Nestlé® products, where we had to use a minimum of one of the products in each dish. The products we chose to use were: Coconut milk powder, Carnation condensed milk & Shredded wheats. As well as making sure that the ingredients we used for both dishes only come to a total of £1.30 per child.
Part of my role was to help support the Chef with the balance of the Meal, Ingredient choice, and the details of the Recipe. We looked at the ingredients and made changes to make sure we met the criteria.

• We thought about the use of Chicken Breast instead of a boneless Chicken thigh, or even removing the skin off of the chicken thigh this would reduce the amount of fat content in the dish, . However we thought it would have taken away the integrity of the dish; the skin helps make the marinade sticky as well as improving the appearance of the dish. Bearing in mind the levels of fat in the dish we decided to swap the butter to margarine made from vegetable oils, reducing the amount of saturated fat.
• We also decided to use half the amount of honey to reduce the amount of sugar without taking away from the “sticky” element of the dish.
• We used a mixture of white and brown rice. Unfortunately some children are not use to consuming brown rice so may be put off the idea if we were to serve 100% brown rice. By mixing the two, gives a bit more variants in colour- attracting children as well as providing them with more wholegrains which are full of fiber, B Vitamins and will reduce the amount of sugar.
• To ensure we tied the dessert with the School Food Standards, we tried to reduce the amount of fat and sugar in the dish. We swapped the custard to lighter custard, we used Shredded wheats crumbled on the bottom instead of a biscuit, which have a higher nutritional value- proving us with different vitamins and fiber, as well as reducing the amount of fat and sugar.
• We originally garnished our dessert with dried banana chips, to also add a crunch, however dried fruit are generally higher in fat and sugar, so we decided to go with fresh bananas, which would overall tie in better and give an overall fresher taste.

Finally, after several cooking sessions, tweaks were made, as well as several tasting sessions (See a teaser picture below). The final meal consists of:
Chinese sticky Chicken
Spirarilsed Vegetables
Coconut Rice Parcel
Toffee & Banana Mousse

Overall, the meal has been tested with pupils from year 6 and was a great success.
We have been successful in reaching the Regional finals which will be taking place in Mid-January, so watch this place; I will keep you updated on your progress, nearer the time.

As part of Pyrgo Priory’s School Science Week, HCS were invited into the school to talk to the children about Healthy Eating. A number of workshops were held over the course of two days, to pupils from Years 2-6. We discussed their understanding on what healthy eating means to them and helped explained the benefits and overview on different nutrients and where they may find them in different foods as well as how these nutrients can promote different health benefits.

A healthy snack was prepared with the pupil, followed by a tasting session. This showed how healthy eating can be incorporated into their daily diet rather than snacking on confectionery  We then discussed how to incorporate 5 a Day into their diets; fresh fruit was selected to make a healthy nutritious Smoothie for the pupil to try. This involved the pupils being able to make their own, by cycling on the Smoothie bike. All pupils received a healthy eating booklet, given them an overview and guidance on nutrition and recipes demonstrated on the day.

This year the Kids Activity Expo was held on 22nd May at Coopers Company & Coburn School in Upminster.

Nearly 2000 visitors attended the Expo to encourage the children of Havering to lead a healthier lifestyle from fun activity and Havering Catering Services  in conjunction with Roots to Food, were on hand with an interactive showcase of how to make food fun, healthy and good to eat.

Some of the recipes the children made along with some pictures of the event are attached below, and please look out for next years event.

Cajun Meatballs

Cheese and Chive Salmon Cakes

Cajun Meatballs

National Vegetarian Week kicks off on the 16^th until 22^nd May.  In the UK, it is estimated 2-3% of the population are vegetarian, with a further 5-7% describing themselves as partly vegetarian (avoiding red meat or fish).

Everyone wants and understands the importance of having a healthy balance diet/lifestyle and the benefits it has. The key to following a healthy vegetarian diet (similar to any other diet we should have): eat a wide range of food such as fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, whole grains, pulses, nuts, seeds and legumes whilst reducing sugar and fat.

It’s very hard to define what a vegetarian is but below is a few different types of vegetarianism:

• Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian- individuals who eat no meat but will consume dairy products and eggs (must be free range).
• Lacto-Vegetarian- individuals who consume dairy products but do not eat meat or eggs.
• Ovo-vegetarian- individuals who consume eggs but do not eat meat or dairy products.
• Piscastarian- individuals who consume eggs, dairy products and fish but not meat.
• Vegans- individuals who do not eat any meat or any other animal products.Why do individuals follow a Vegetarian Diet?

  For a number of reasons; these could be improving their health, concerns for the environment, animal welfare, religious reasons, and a dislike for meat or economic reasons.

  If we were to compare a omnivores (meat eaters) diet to a varied vegetarian diet, the vegetarians would contains less saturated fat, cholesterol and increased amounts of folate, fibre, antioxidants and are more likely to exceed the recommendation of 5-a-day fruit and vegetable, having more of a beneficial effect on their health. From this, studies have shown that those individuals following a varied vegetarian diet have a lower risk of developing Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Type 2 Diabetes and becoming obesity.

  But with any diet individuals follow, there is always either imbalance or a risk of not meeting nutritional requirements- Balance is key!  For example: some vegetarians they are at risk of developing deficiencies: Protein, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, Omega 3 and Zinc. This could be due to too extreme diets or the failure to plan out meals according to that individual’s dietary requirements.  If in doubt, always have a look at the vegetarian eat well guide for peace of mind.

  Click the link  to access one of our popular vegetarian dishes in primary schools that you can try at home.  I have added variations/ changes to help address deficiencies or imbalances in individual’s diets.Cheesy Leek Pasta Recipe

Just before the Easter break, the new Eatwell Guide was published.  The aim of this is to guide us on the different types of food we should eat – and in what proportions – to achieve a healthy, balanced diet.

The Eatwell Guide has replaced the Eatwell Plate and several changes have been introduced as a result of new and increased evidence that helps us to understand what a healthy, balanced diet should look like.

The change of name away from “plate” helps us to remember that we don’t need to have these exact proportions on every plate or with every meal but should aim to get the balance right over a day or a week.

The recommendations are to:
* Eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day. Remember that juicing or blending fruit releases the sugar so it becomes ‘free sugar‘ – so it’s better to get your 5-a-day by eating whole fruits and vegetables.
* Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, choosing wholegrain versions where possible.
* Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks); choosing lower fat and lower sugar options.
* Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish every week, 1 of which should be oily).
* Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and eat in small amounts
* Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of fluid a day choosing water, lower fat milk and lower sugar or sugar-free drinks including tea and coffee.

Foods high in fat, salt and sugar sit outside the segments because they are not needed in the diet.  While we might eat chocolate, crisps, cakes, biscuits and sugary drinks because we enjoy them, we should only do so infrequently and in small amounts.

So what can we do to support children to enjoy a healthy, balanced diet?

To encourage children to eat healthily we need consistent approaches and messages throughout home, school and play settings.

Havering’s Health and Wellbeing in Schools Service works with schools to promote a whole school approach to healthy eating. Schools can work towards Healthy Schools London awards which help to ensure consistent healthy eating messages are in place across curricular and extra-curricular activities; nutritious food is provided at lunchtime, in tuckshops and breakfast clubs; staff act as positive role models; children are involved in shaping the food offer in their school perhaps through their school council; and parents engage with the school food agenda through tasting sessions at parents evenings, provision of healthy packed lunches, and supporting after-school cooking and gardening clubs.

We’ve seen some brilliant Healthy Schools projects taking place this school year that have included increasing uptake of vegetables at lunchtime, children exploring the food environment around their school and comparing the food on offer with a healthy school meal, and lots of work focused on sugary drinks.

When school cooking lessons follow National Curriculum guidance focusing on healthy savoury recipes, children develop valuable life skills that enable them to prepare and cook healthy meals from scratch. Lots of schools also run after-school cooking and gardening clubs.

The menus provided by Havering Catering Services (HCS) meet the Government’s school food standards and with a Silver Food For Life Catering Mark you can also trust that ingredients are responsibly sourced.

Finally, as parents, you can make a huge contribution by eating healthily at home and involving children in preparing and cooking meals; encouraging your children to eat their 5-a-day; keeping high fat, high sugar and high salt foods as a treat; and choosing healthier everyday snacks. For more ideas, there’s lots of information on the Eat Well section of the Change4Life website!

International School Meals Day (ISMD) falls on Thursday 3rd March and this years theme is “Fresh and Healthy Local Foods”.

ISMD aims to raise awareness of the importance of good nutrition for children and fostering healthy eating habits that can be transferred from school to home. School meals doesn’t only have a positive impact on children’s health, but furthers their understanding and choices in food later in life, but it is proven that when children eat better they perform better at school too. The right nutrition helps with concentration, enabling them to reach their full potential.

We should celebrate school meals!! They have certainly come a long way (especially since when I was at school when we were served desserts  and Turkey twizzlers!!!). Here at HCS we focus on providing the best quality natural, locally sourced ingredients with the help of the School Food standards and accreditation like “Food for Life” which ensures  that our menus healthy, use sustainable produce and farmed in an environment that takes consideration for animal welfare.

From a public health point of view children consume at least one, sometimes two or three meals a day whilst at school, therefore school meals play a vital role in delivering the child obesity strategy, which the government is soon to publish. Currently the UK has the highest rate of obesity in Europe with one in three three overweight or obese by year 6. This is proof that we need to promote good healthy eating habits and where better to start than through school meals.

 

You will have seen the latest campaign from the NHS on Change 4 Life and I wanted to draw you attention to the excellent Sugar Smart Application.

The app can be downloaded onto your smartphone device and it can be of great use whilst you are doing the weekly shop, to help you make healthier choices for your families diets.

The app works by scanning the barcodes of well known food and drinks products and tells you what its sugar content.

Below are the recommended maximum daily sugar uptake amounts, that should be used as a guide only

AGE	Recommended maximum added sugar intake	Sugar cubes
4-6yrs	No more than 19g per day	5 cubes
7-10yrs	No more than 24g per day	6 cubes
11rs +	No more than 30g per day	7 cubes