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School Meals

Willow Tree Class Courgette Harvest
Acorns making Fruit Kebabs with Marco
Year 3/4 Baking with Marco
Making bread with Marco Y5/6

Some exciting news for our school about our school meals.

January 2023 

 

We are delighted to be launching a new project to improve lunches and the lunchtime experience in our school.  We have taken some time to gather comments from children, staff and parents last term and have decided that a complete overhaul was the best plan. This will complement our healthy mind, healthy body ethos and we have exciting plans for the children to grow produce for the kitchen and enjoying first-hand experience of local producers.

You may have heard of the charity called ‘Chefs in Schools’ which was founded by Henry Dimbleby, Louise Nichols and Nicole Pisani and is a charity that works together with schools aiming to improve school meals.  The charity’s work started in London and the North and now is moving into the South West.  We are the first in Devon to take this marvellous opportunity to work with them. 

https://chefsinschools.org.uk/ 

 

All our meals are cooked and freshly prepared here at The Grove - children can choose between a main or alternative option meal daily. Alongside the menu is a varied salad bar, yogurt, fresh fruit and water available every day.

 

School meals are now free for ALL children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. For the older year groups meals cost £2.50 per day, payable in advance using ParentPay. We have an extensive daily menu (please click on link below). 
 
Lunches need to be ordered by Thursday for the following week.   
 
 


Our School Lunches Vision
We believe that there is more to school lunches than them just being  healthy and tasty.  We are changing our whole school culture around food and our curriculum.  Read our school vision document below.
 
Feedback from Children and Parents about our New Meals
 

I just wanted to let you know that the children love the new school meals and they love Marco too. They are excited about their lunches and it’s the first thing they tell me about at the end of the day. They say the food tastes amazing. Thank you for sorting this out.

 

'This tastes as good as Taco Bell.'

'This is my first time eating a taco and I LOVE it.'

'I haven't tasted any of this before it's all new and it's delicious.'

'It's so great that we can go back for seconds I'm sooo hungry.'

 

I just wanted to say how great the buzz around the new Chefs in Schools Program is. I have two very cautious eaters but they have both told me they want school lunches everyday! I don’t know what magic is now happening in school around food, but whatever you are doing, please keep doing it!

 

Wow, this is such an amazing idea! Thank you for bringing this to The Grove. Our daughter is excited about it already! She is particularly impressed with having a real Italian chef in who makes their own pizza bases! She can’t wait.

I love the idea of a parent come dine with me. I look forward to more news on this and the chefs in schools project.

Again, many thanks

 

Wow this is fantastic news! I’ve heard lots about chefs in schools and very recently on the Food Program, on Radio 4. Really looking forward to hearing more about it all as things get off the ground.

Thank you!

 

Taco Tuesday was a lot of fun. Seemed to go down very well!

 

I just wanted to say thank you for making this significant change happen - I don’t doubt how complicated it is to change what the children are eating and to balance everyone’s requirements. There have been ups and downs but I am just so, so pleased this has happened. They are talking more about the food, how it’s made and where it’s from. As GF kids, they were eating baked potatoes pretty much every day. Which is fine, but I’m just really glad they are being stretched and encouraged to try different things. x has asked for a packed lunch a few times as a back up, but I’d rather they just keep trying over and over again. It might take ten times for them to like some new foods but what a result!!