Making a meal out of school dinners
An advertising campaign has launched this week to promote the social side of school dinners to secondary school pupils.
Following the success of a similar campaign last year for primary schools, posters promoting healthy menus are now on display in secondary schools, and on billboards and at bus shelters across the county.
The posters have been designed with young people in mind and VOX, the county’s youth panel contributed their ideas at each step of the process about how the posters should look and their suggestions were taken forward and incorporated in the final designs.
This is all part of a wider campaign to transform school meals, which began early last year. Warwickshire County Caterers, the catering arm of the county council who provide school dinners to the majority of schools in the county, have been listening to what their customers want and have introduced some exciting changes.
New menus, food tastings, sixth form cafes and state of the art cashless systems are a few of the changes which have been implemented at schools around Warwickshire over the past 12 months.
This advertising campaign is a way to demonstrate to pupils and their parents the benefits of taking a school meal – not only is it a great way for young people to try new food and get a healthy meal at lunchtime but the school canteen is a great place for pupils to meet with friends and catch up with each other socially.
Sandra Russell, Head of Catering for Warwickshire County Council said: “The council has based much of its work on a whole school approach to healthy eating and places greater importance on the dining experience. New and exciting menus are developed each term and we encourage students to offer their ideas to our staff to ensure we are meeting their needs.
“We hope this advertising campaign will raise awareness of what’s on offer and encourage a greater uptake of school meal subscriptions throughout the county.”