Grantham school wins a tasty £5k cash prize

The Trust has awarded The King's School £5,000 to further the improvements they have already made. Faced with low school meal take up, The King's School decided to improve the school meal service by investing in better kitchen and dining room equipment as well as making the dining room more attractive to students by installing a new cashless payment system to reduce queuing times. The school improved the quality of food and installed new furniture and artwork – which is based on a science theme to pay tribute to their most famous pupil – Sir Isaac Newton - and gathered feedback from pupils and worked with the School Council to develop a healthy eating concept within the school. As a result of these changes, meal take up has significantly increased and they are also proud to be able to deliver their good quality hot food to 4 other schools in the area every day. Peter Kirkbride, Bursar at The King's School, said: "We are all delighted that the hard work of the pupils, staff and governors in improving the whole dining experience at The King's School has been recognised and rewarded. With the £5,000 prize money we will extend our cashless catering provision and purchase a cash loader and two further cashless tills which will reduce queues, help improve school meal take-up and create a calmer atmosphere in the dining areas." The School of the Month competition is the initiative set up by the School Food Trust to recognise excellence and innovation in the area of school food. It allows all the schools that are signed up to the School Food Trust's Million Meals campaign the chance to win £5,000 every month. Prue Leith, Chair of the School Food Trust, said: "Huge congratulations to The King's School! To be selected as our School of the Month is no mean achievement and I know that behind the result is a terrific lot of hard and dedicated work. I hope everyone is delighted with themselves. They deserve to be."