Award on menu thanks to schools' fresh food ethos

Michelle Martin (quality assurance manager), Shaun Mancrief (head of facilities management), Cllr Patrick Mulligan, Caron Longden (Soil Associations national development manager food for life), Jenn Smith (training and development officer), June Taylor (technical support manager).

This accolade is awarded by the association for serving home-cooked, fresh, local and healthy foods to pupils.

The county council’s catering team includes cooks from 330 schools from across North Yorkshire.

Last year the county council’s school meals service spent nearly £6million on food supporting local and regional producers to provide top-quality, fresh ingredients for the schools it supports.

Councillor Patrick Mulligan, North Yorkshire’s executive member for schools, said: “This has been a huge group effort from all the schools and our team and we are delighted to have this award from the Soil Association.

“Our school cooks go to huge efforts to make sure children are served high quality meals.

“Our food is fully traceable, produced to high welfare standards and home cooked from fresh in our kitchens, including home-baked bread.

“We have been developing our fresh, locally procured food policy for many years, long before Jamie Oliver campaigned against turkey twizzlers.

“Not only is this good for children and young people who can enjoy freshly prepared, high-quality food for their school meal, but it is also good for the local economy by keeping money in the region, supporting local and British farmers and creating employment for growers and suppliers.”