Mayor goes back to school to sample award winning school dinner

Park Primary School has won the School Food Trust's Million Meals School of the Month competition in recognition of the innovative ways they improved their meal service and raised the profile of healthy eating across the school. The Trust has awarded Park Primary £5,000 to further the improvements they have already made.

Park Primary successfully raised the profile of healthy eating to increase awareness of their service across the school with pupils, parents, staff, governors and other stakeholders. They reviewed the school dinner menu based on feedback from the School Council and the wider school community and implemented widespread changes, including installing a salad bar and making effective changes to the service counter.

The School Council arranged a Healthy Eating Evening for parents to illustrate the changes that had been made and to promote the quality of the school food service as well as the nutritional value of food provided. They also enhanced the promotion of the meal service to ensure all pupils understood the healthy eating message and the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, said: "Healthy eating is an important factor in any childhood. Park Primary have recognised this fact and taken a proactive approach that takes a rounded look at healthy eating. The teachers, staff, pupils and their families have taken this challenge head on and my congratulations go out to all them for their achievements and for winning the Million Meals award. I would like to see more schools take up the Million Meals campaign. "

Headteacher Ann Buckingham said "All of us here are thrilled to win this award, it's a resounding testimony to the hard work and dedication put in by pupils, staff and governors all of whom are focused on making lunchtime at Park Primary School a great experience for everyone. We plan to spend the £5,000 prize money replacing basic equipment such as plates and serving dishes plus to buy a brand sparkling new salad bar to encourage even more youngsters to get their 5-a-day during lunchtime."

The School of the Month competition is a new 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.

The Million Meals campaign aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children by getting a million more students eating school meals by 2010. Over 4,300 schools across the country have already signed up to the campaign.

Prue Leith, Chair of the School Food Trust, said: ''Huge congratulations to Park Primary 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''.