The visit marked the start of a year-long Birmingham Food Conversation that will form part of the National Food Strategy to investigate the entire food chain from ‘farm to fork.’
Cityserve provides 50,000 school meals across the West Midlands every day.
During the visit Dimbleby and the National Food Strategy team spent time with a local school, Bellfield Junior School, who hosted sessions on food tasting, healthy cooking as well as a lesson on sugar and nutrition.
Dimbleby said: “It’s fantastic to be here at Cityserve to launch national food conversations as part of the National Food Strategy.
“The government has recognised that we need to change our food system, that we need to create a food system that delivers all of the benefits that it currently does in terms of the supply of an amazing quality of food but does so without making us sick and without harming our environment.
“Those changes are going to come about as a result of some changes in policy and in law but it requires a fundamental cultural change and it’s really exciting seeing what’s happening here at Cityserve teaching children to just to cook but to enjoy food, to taste it, to experience it.
“We need to reconnect with our food, we need to enjoy the pleasure of cooking and eating together if we’re going to have a system for the future that doesn’t make us sick and doesn’t hurt our environment and it’s really exciting to see the grassroots of that here at Cityserve.”
The National Food Strategy team also visited the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and women’s community service Anawim. The aim was to encourage people to talk about all aspects of food such as where it comes from and why we buy particular products.
Brian Cape, head of service at Cityserve, added: “Being able to welcome the team from the National Food Strategy and show them what we do here in terms of food education was a real privilege.
“As the organisation responsible for feeding children across the West Midlands every single day, we want to be part of the conversation and play a role in forming national food policy.”