Conference held for school cooks

Janice commented on the aims of the conference: "School cooks are key to ensuring school children understand the importance of healthy eating and eat well every day at school." Simon Hughes MP, who gave the keynote speech at the conference which was held at St James's Primary School in Bermondsey, explained: "The council welcomes Janice's initiative in organising this conference – it will play an extremely important role in helping local school cooks get grips with the requirements of the new nutritional guidelines so that the healthy initiative reaches all local schools." Janice, with the support of her teacher, introduced a healthy eating campaign at Charles Dickens Primary School after a questionnaire she sent to parents to find out what their children ate at home. She also worked closely with the school cook to transform lunchtime menus at the school. Children now eat freshly-prepared, nutritionally-balanced meals sourced from local ingredients and cooked on the premises. Additives have been almost phased out of their food and the children are now learning how to grow fruit and vegetables that are used in their meals. Janice continued: "The children now eat a lot more school meals because they love trying new dishes and learning how to prepare nutritionally balanced meals. It's now up to schools to introduce children to healthy balanced meals and teach them to cook and socialise as a unit during meals. This is our aim for all schools in Southwark."