The best way to show the Food for Life programme is through case studies of various aspects of the programme in action.
Here are some examples of our work to inspire you to get involved! You'll find more case studies in the side panels around the website and enrolled settings will find even more once they have logged into their portal.
The Birkbees Nursery Group is a collection of four nurseries in Huddersfield. The nurseries range from having 32 places to 85 in one setting and cater for a diverse group of children from many different backgrounds. The Birkbees Nursery Group was one of two nurseries who were the first to achieve the national FFL Early Years Award after participating in the pilot programme, supported by Kirklees Council.
Michael Drayton Junior School is a large school of 500 pupils with a diverse catchment. As part of their Food for Life work, they have embraced growing to the full with great success, both in terms of the impact on the children and the growing of produce itself. Kate MacRae coordinates the growing as she is responsible for outdoor learning. The school understand that being outdoors is very important for the children’s mental and physical health. Growing in the school grounds has given them a great learning context for that time outdoors, enabling them to experience risk in a safe setting, get their hands dirty and even wear wellies – a new thing for some! It also provides a real opportunity for team-working and peer mentoring as the older pupils support the younger ones in developing their skills.
Westlea Primary School is a culturally rich school in Swindon with over 300 pupils from a range of backgrounds. Since joining the Food for Life programme in 2003 they have transformed both their food provision and food education, recently achieving the prestigious Food for Life Gold Award. This case study looks at their journey, and how is has benefited both pupils and the wider community.
Since January 2012, Barrow Hill Primary School and Food for Life have been working together to encourage everyone in the school and community to learn more about the food they eat, tracing it from farm to fork. Barrow Hill Primary has fully embraced the Food for Life ethos whilst embedding the programme across the whole school community.
Clifton Green Primary School (CGPS) serves pupils from varied demographics in one of the most deprived wards in the City of York. This case study explains how holding a school farmers' market and introducing pupils to small local producers and business owners had a positive impact on the career aspirations of many students.
This case study explains how Eastfield Primary school used the Food for Life framework to increase their school meal take up to an impressive 97% (100% on some days!)
Greenfields Community School in Nottingham first joined the Food for Life schools programme in January 2008. They enrolled having already done some fantastic work to develop a thriving school garden and were keen to use the Food for Life award framework to extend this good work to improve their food provision and food education. This case study looks at their journey so far.
Hob Moor Community Primary School and Hob Moor Oaks Special School share a purpose built kitchen for lunches but conversations with the school SNAG Group highlighted to staff that lunchtimes were becoming stressful for the children. This case study explains how even small changes can have a huge impact on the dining experience for all pupils and can help to encourage healthy eating.
Bridge Junior school and Shaftesbury Junior School in Leicester both received special awards for their outstanding work with Food for Life.
Ling Bob Junior, Infant and Nursery School enrolled on the Food for Life programme to raise the quality and uptake of their school meals. This case study explain how they achieved this not only among the students but also among schools staff by using the Food for Life framework.
New Fosseway School pupils have a range of special educational needs and to ensure the Food for Life (FFL) programme worked for these pupils, the FFL lead at the school met with an FFL Local Programme Manager and created a plan based on the Food for Life framework and the Healthy Food work the school was already involved in. Teachers notice better engagement in several areas of the curriculum, including Maths, Science, Design and Technology and Literacy, when it was framed around the Food for Life growing programme.
Park Academy in Boston struggled with a fragmented school community and low school meal uptake, due in part to over 62% of pupils coming from migrant backgrounds. Using the Food for Life framework to consult pupils and their families, the school were able to significantly increase their school meal take up and encourage the wider community to take part in school activities around food.
In developing the Food for Life for hospitals, our expert team, funded by the Big Lottery Wellbeing Fund, has worked with three NHS Trusts to co-develop a framework for health-promoting and sustainable hospital food, and to support the initiatives shared in this case study.
"We have commissioned FFL because it offers an evidence-based, empowering programme of support which we can target in our efforts to tackle health inequalities across our diverse county. "
