School meals get a fresh look

This new direction for the school meals service follows 18 months of engagement with a range of stakeholders including pupils, parents, principals, and staff.

Speaking at a launch event held between Banbridge Academy and St Mary’s Primary School Banbridge, Sara Long, EA Chief Executive explained that it was important the pupil was kept at the centre of any decision-making process on the future of school meals.

“Our engagement brought together the views of over 5,000 people. What was most important to us was the views of the pupils and we are delighted that the new branding and new food offering reflects what they want,” Ms Long explained before adding:

“Our focus as a catering service is to offer food our children and young people will enjoy. Our new menus offer choice, with healthy nutritional food available every day in our schools. By listening to our young people, we believe we can encourage more pupils into the school canteen.”

Alongside the new menu offering, new brands for both primary and post primary pupils are being rolled out in schools across Northern Ireland.

Primary school children will see the introduction of ‘The Lunch Bunch’, a colourful character-based brand that will also bring fun learning about food into the classroom.

Stephen Briggs, the EA’s Head of Catering, outlined the rationale behind ‘The Lunch Bunch’:

“One of the key messages from the primary school children we spoke with, was that whole fun element around food and cooking. And that is where the idea of having characters came from. The five characters of the Lunch Bunch are all relatable to children in our schools and they all have different food passions,” Mr Briggs explained.

“The ‘Whole School Approach’ to school catering is based around great tasting, nutritious food in the dining hall, raising awareness and education in the classroom, and finally encouraging children to get involved in cooking at home. Our philosophy when it comes to school meals can be summed up by our new motto, ‘Eat Well, Live Well, Learn Well’, and we are very excited about how ‘The Lunch Bunch’ can help us do those three things.”

In post-primary schools the new brand, ‘Let’s Eat’, is centred around a more maturing audience while the menu offering looks at adding more convenient, healthy and tasty options.

“When we surveyed our post-primary school pupils it was clear they enjoyed the ‘grab and go’ element of our menu, so we have looked to expand that offering. In addition, we learned that pupils loved variety to their meal options, so we are excited by the inclusion of our new ‘Flavours of the World’ dishes” Mr Briggs said.

The ‘Flavours of the World’ range sees ten new dishes added to the menu of every post-primary school, with pupils’ taste buds being taken on a flavoursome tour of the world.

“We are very excited about the future of our school meals service,” added Ms Long.

“Over 4,000 people are employed in EA Catering, and we are very proud of the staff, the fantastic work they do and the positive impact they have on our pupils. Our new menus and new brands will compliment all the great work going on in our kitchens and we are looking forward to encouraging more pupils through our canteen doors,” she said.

Pictured: Jenny McKinstry, Unit Catering Supervisor, Banbridge Academy, Sara Long, Chief Executive Education Authority, Robin McLoughlin, OBE, with Banbridge Academy students, Lucy Gilmore and Matthew Morrow.
Pictured below:  Des O’Hagan, Principal of St Mary’s Banbridge, Sara Long, Chief Executive Education Authority, Seamus Cooke, Unit Catering Supervisor, St Mary’s Banbridge along with pupils, Mikolaj, Sadie, Julia and Ryan.