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09 April 2025
Big congratulations to St Mary's C of E School in Hinckley, Leicestershire, who have achieved their Food for Life Gold Award. This it the highest level of the Food for Life Schools Award and is proof of a school’s exceptional dedication to building a good food culture.
During their award ceremony, the school’s headteacher credited Food for Life’s support and guidance for the changes they’ve been able to make. Food for Life showing them exactly what to do and how made all the difference in helping them to create a good food culture at the school.
"We have transformed our whole school culture through this fantastic initiative which enables our children to learn more about where food comes from and the benefits of healthy eating and food sustainability. Thanks to Soil Association Food for Life for their support."
Their first action was to set up a School Nutrition Action Group, or SNAG. This is a group made up of pupils and staff who want to lead the way with making change. The pupils who are a part of this group have overseen loads of changes at the school since then, from encouraging their peers to try more veg to getting involved with growing food. One SNAG pupil shared that he enjoys vegetables a lot more since working with Food for Life, with red peppers being a favourite, whilst another now eats sweetcorn every day at lunch. Before working with Food for Life, many of these pupils didn’t eat vegetables at all and were uncomfortable trying new ones.
Alongside eating more veg, pupils have been packing up food to send to families in other countries who don’t have the same access to food. They enjoyed learning about food beyond just growing, cooking and eating it, and finding out more about food insecurity and other inequalities.
One pupil said she had helped her mum to cook at home using the slow cooker and used tubs to save leftover food for future meals, avoiding food waste
The school have also set up sensory tasting sessions, attended Food for Life training, improved the school dining environment, made links with local farms, set up growing areas using raised beds, invited parents to try school dinners, cooked food from scratch, and used school-grown produce in school meals.
All this makes for a school where food is a positive part of the school day, whether that’s enjoying a healthy and sustainable school meal or connecting with farms to find out where food comes from.