Oldham's school dinners are top of the class

Anne Burns, Principal Catering Manager

Oldham’s schools catering service has tasted success, scooping a prestigious award.

The team has brought back the bacon after attending the Food for Life Served Here & Green Kitchen Standard awards in London.

Oldham’s service was given the Food for Life Served Here Excellence at Silver & Gold Award.

The honours recognise organisations that go the extra mile when it comes to serving up nutritious and healthy food, which is locally sourced and better for the environment - as it’s made with sustainable practise in mind.

Oldham was the first in the North West to attain a ‘Gold Food for Life Catering Mark’ – a standard that has maintained ever since thanks to the quality meals being plated up every day.

And the borough has also won a BOOM (Best of Organic Market), which promotes organic food and living.

Every meal served in 76 primary and special schools by the catering team meets the gold standard and are examples of best practice.

They are healthy, ethically prepared and contain lots of locally sourced ingredients and products which can be traced.

All of Oldham’s menus are freshly prepared daily on site by the catering teams, using a range of organic products, high animal welfare produce and free range ingredients.

Helen Lockwood, Deputy Chief Executive, said: “I’d like to congratulate the Schools Catering Team as this award recognises their hard work.

“Every day our team prepare around 16,000 healthy, nutritious and tasty meals for pupils to tuck into and this award shows they are doing it the right way.

“Parents, children and residents are more interested than ever before about the source and quality of the food they eat.

“The award shows our commitment to ensuring that our school children are receiving the best quality food as part of a healthy balanced diet.”

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