Prue Leith opens School FEAST centre at Worcester College

Worcester is one of 29 specialist centres and partnerships comprising School FEAST, (Food Skills and Excellence Training) and is the second specialist training centre for school cooks in the West Midlands. The new centre will provide training and continuous education for cooks, kitchen assistants, lunch-time supervisors, pupils and their parents. Prue Leith said: "School cooks are the heartbeat of our school food revolution - transforming lunches and children's health. They deserve the best training. This extension of the School FEAST Network will play a key role in nurturing the school cooks of the future – enhancing the skills of kitchen staff for hundreds of schools in Worcester and the surrounding areas, and ensuring more children eat a healthy lunch every day." The School FEAST network was established in October 2006 by the School Food Trust and is critical to ensuring school cooks have the skills they need to transform the quality and provision of school food. The purpose built kitchens will help provide a readily accessible supply of high quality training and ensure the school food workforce is motivated and encouraged to take up the training needed. This is especially critical since the introduction in September for all schools to follow new government guidelines for food and nutritional standards.