my manifesto

Local and national government need to come up with a ten-year strategy and some real money to re-educate people about proper eating habits. This is what I think needs to happen now:

1. In schools: make cooking and life skills classes compulsory for all kids so they learn about food and good eating habits while they're young.

2. For teachers: recruit and train new cookery teachers, otherwise the new right that kids have to cookery lessons just isn’t going to happen.

3. For heads: empower heads to make every school a junk food free zone.

4. For parents: educate parents and help them to understand the basics of family cooking and responsible nutrition.

5. For dinner ladies: invest in dinner ladies with proper training and enough paid hours to cook their food with fresh ingredients.

6. Commit to a ten-year strategic plan and fund a long-term public campaign to get people back on to a proper diet and empower/persuade (and possibly scare, if needed) the public to make better choices. With obesity costing the NHS more than smoking, it seems logical that a similar campaign should be appropriate.

Let me talk a little more about each point above - download my full manifesto below.



• Download (PDF, 132KB)

nora's notes

Nora’s given us a few bits of advice for dinner ladies about what she’s had to do over the last year to make her school meals service a success. You can also find out about the great snacks and healthy food she’s now got on the menu at mid-morning break.



• Download (PDF, 86KB)

Visit Nora at Nora's Kitchen.

school standards

The new school food standards mean that from this autumn, things have to change in all schools, and quite quickly too! Have a look at the School Food Trust website for a summary. You can download each new standard as well. It’s really important that schools and dinner ladies get loads of support while these changes are taking place.

Visit the School Food Trust website to find out more.