With an audience of 250 schoolchildren, Tilda held a number of fun, educational exercises, including a ‘Paddy to Plate’ session. which highlighted what countries grow the ingredient and its journey from planting to eating.
It also shared insight into the company’s charitable initiative with Mary’s Meals, with head teacher Harvard Spring commenting: “We were delighted to welcome Tilda back to our school to celebrate National Rice Week.
“Being involved in special events like Rice Day makes such a big difference to our pupils’ understanding of where their food comes from, and gives us a valuable opportunity to speak to them about eating healthily.
“The Mary’s Meals connection added a new element for the children to think about and encouraged them to look beyond their own surroundings to those less fortunate than themselves.
“The Rice Day has been a huge success - providing pupils with a wealth of knowledge and new appreciation for how rice is processed.”
Annette Coggins, head of Tilda Foodservice added: “As our Tilda Together 2018 winners, we were delighted to return to Foresters Primary School for a dedicated day in celebration of National Rice Week, and to see how the school has benefited from its vegetable garden (prize).
“Hosting an event like this shows the children just how important the grain is to people around the world, and what a positive impact good nutrition can have.”
The school also ran a competition for pupils ahead of National Rice Week, asking them to create their own rice recipes “exploring different ingredients and flavour combinations.”
School catering manager Terri Phillimore commented: “It’s really important to teach children from a young age that food can be fun, and this competition gave our pupils the opportunity to play with different flavours in a way they wouldn’t of considered before.
“I chose a Chinese chicken rice salad as the winning dish as it perfectly combined fruit, vegetables and meat. With apple, sweetcorn, chicken, cabbage, boiled eggs and peas, it may seem like an unusual mix but you could tell this pupil had carefully considered how all the flavours would go together and it really paid off.
“The Tilda Rice Day has encouraged our pupils to think about food differently and be more open to trying new dishes.”