Aberdeen City Council’s catering team are celebrating after the council renewed its Food for Life Served Here bronze certification for the ninth time. This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of the council’s school catering team as well as the commitment to cooking from scratch and sourcing local ingredients.
The council, which first received the award for its primary school meals in 2015 and for secondary schools in 2017, is now serving more than 13,500 nutritious, sustainable and locally sourced Food for Life meals across 61 sites every day.
With an updated menu launched after the October break, pupils can now enjoy pea-based recipes that are part of the council’s new school meals menu including lemon and pea risotto, sweet potato and pea curry, split pea meatballs with bolognaise sauce and a pea-based muffin and cookie.
Councillor Martin Greig, convenor of the education and children’s services committee at Aberdeen City Council, said: “Good quality food is an important way to nourish and support young people’s health and wellbeing. School meals should be nutritious and contain as much fresh, local and sustainable food as possible.
“It is testament to the ongoing commitment and hard work of our catering and procurement teams that the Council has received the Food for Life Served Here bronze award for the ninth year. It is a great achievement and congratulations to everyone involved.
“Being part of the Give Peas a Chance pilot programme has enabled us to bring more local, organic produce into the menu. This is great for our young people, the local economy and the environment. It has also given catering staff an opportunity to develop new recipes and menus.”