7 November - Nora comes to Town!
Celebrity school dinner cook, Nora Sands, known for giving Jamie Oliver a run for his money in TV documentary Jamie’s School Dinners, visited children in three of our local primary schools recently.

Nora came to help us celebrate our first year of serving high quality school dinners in 19 local schools, by awarding prizes to 23 local children.

Nora’s day in Deal started with lunch at St Mary’s RC Primary School, where she chatted to the children and praised the quality of the meal. Wednesday is traditionally “roast day” and Nora enjoyed roast pork with apple sauce, roast potatoes and fresh vegetables with a side salad and freshly baked bread. “The food quality is tremendous and I am very impressed with all that Whole School Meals have achieved in such a short time”, commented Nora. “The meat is excellent and the vegetables were very nicely cooked. The vegetarian option was excellent, too”, she added as she congratulated Cook Elaine Marsh.

After lunch Nora moved on to Warden House Primary School, where she met the Head Teacher, Graham Stabbs and spent time with children in years 2, 5 and 6. Nora talked to the children about her love of cooking and her energy and enthusiasm quickly rubbed off on the children. Class 5H were her “champion school dinners class”, with 58% of the children taking a school dinner. The children talked about their favourite meals at home and at school and Nora encouraged them to try cooking at home and to enjoy the family meal taken together at the table.

Later in the day Nora presented prizes at The Downs CE Primary School, resulting from Whole School Meals’ September Promotion. For two weeks, children were given a voucher with their school dinner to enter a prize draw. Almost 6,000 entries were received and 23 prizes were awarded. One child from each school received a book prize and a further four lucky winners received vouchers donated by Bumblebees Books and Toys in Deal, a karaoke machine, and top prize of a bicycle sponsored by V’s Emporium Cycles and Accessories in Mill Hill, Deal.

Nora joined Stephanie Hayman, Chairman of Whole School Meals, in also thanking our main suppliers who were the September Promotion’s main sponsors. AC Wellard supply fresh produce with an emphasis on Kentish produce, NFC Food Services supply high quality dry goods, and Rooks Butchers are our meat supplier, providing mostly Kent-reared meat.

Nora rounded off the day by signing copies of her book “Nora’s School Dinners” and chatting to children and parents. “I’d love to come back to support Whole School Meals in the future as they are doing such a great job here. And the children are all so lovely and well behaved!” said Nora before she left. “We would love to welcome Nora back, and hope to arrange for her to lead some children’s cookery classes”, added Stephanie Hayman.

21 June - Whole School Meals receives a Special Commendation in the Best New Business category of the Kent Business Awards 2007
We were very pleased to get through to the finals of the Best New Business category at the prestigious Kent Business Awards. Over 20 companies were nominated, with just three going through to the finals. (The winners were an IT company from Herne Bay, and the other runner up was a Folkestone recruitment company, so East Kent did very well this year!).

20 April - We take advice from environment experts on how we can minimise waste and be as environmentally friendly as possible
Professor Tim Valentine and Dr Viv Moore visited Whole School Meals to discuss how we can work towards operating in a more sustainable way. They are experts in this field and kindly donated their time to us free of charge.

We looked at ways of reducing carbon emissions from transport, minimising food and packaging waste, recycling, using cleaning agents that do not contain toxic chemicals, reducing food miles, and more.

Many factors are beyond our control and in many ways we are doing well in minimising the harmful impact on the environment of our activities. But there's always more to do and we'll be looking closely at where we can make quick changes that have a positive effect.

We contacted Tim and Viv via the Kent Green Party - seemed like a good place to start!

17 April - Children's Minister Parmjit Dhanda visits Whole School Meals
We were very pleased to welcome the government minister with responsibility for school dinners, to Castle Community College this week. Parmjit Dhanda spent two hours at the college, talking to students, the Principal Mrs Chapman, our Cooks and catering team, and directors of Whole School Meals. He presented our Team Leader Cook, Michelle, and Team Member, Rose, with certificates of achievement following their successful craft skills training.

Parmjit Dhanda was very supportive of the efforts of Whole School Meals and we were able to tell him about the difficulties we have to surmount as a small catering business operating in a very difficult environment.

Members of South Kent College also attended as the College worked closely with Whole School MEals to design and delver training for our Cooks. All our Cooks and assistant cooks are now undertaking NVQ qualifications, also with South Kent College.

13 March 2007 - Whole School Meals features on Radio Kent Breakfast Show
Radio Kent recorded WSM staff, Directors and parents at a Parents' Evening at Eastry Primary School. Parents were invited to try a range of dishes from the new lunchtime menu and were very impressed with the quality and variety on offer. Click here to hear the piece again.

9 March 2007 - School Food Trust visits Whole School Meals on fact-finding mission
St Mary's Primary School kindly hosted lunch for visitors from the School Food Trust today. Kent County Council had invited them to the County to see some examples of good practice in school catering. Stephanie Hayman (Chairman) and Julia Hallett, Operations Manager, along with Graham Stabbs, Headteacher of Warden House Primary School, spent two hours with the visitors explaining how Whole School Meals came about and how we are successfully working in 21 schools to raise the quality of school dinners.

28 February 2007 - we feature as a case study in a new book published this week
"Healthy Eating in Schools" is a new book packed with case studies about some of the great innovations going on in schools around the country. We were invited to write a chapter about Whole School Meals and it has been included, along with a piece by Graham Stabbs, Headteacher of Warden House Primary School.

To buy a copy of the book fomr Amazon, click through from our link on the Home page.

21 February 2007 - we have won a grant from Cooks in Schools
We were very pleased to learn yesterday that we have been awarded a grant by Cooks in Schools. Cooks in Schools is a charity set up by the well known founder of the River Café restaurant in London where Jamie Oliver once worked, Rose Gray . The charity wants to improve the food children receive in schools and they really like what we are doing here in East Kent.

Our grant will enable us to give our catering staff extra craft skills training and will fund a programme of taster events in our schools.

So look out for a taster afternoon or evening in your child's school. If you would like us to come to your school, drop us an email.

19 December - Visit by Melissa Love of the South East Food Group Partnership
The South East Food Group Partnership kindly awarded Whole School Meals Ltd's precursor organisation a grant of £2,500, in late 2005. This enabled us to do the work to bid for, and win, the contract with KCC (along with a further grant of £2,500 from Government Office for the South-East (GOSE).

We were delighted to meet Melissa, who is the Public Sector Procument Project Manager, with a special interest in schools.

Melissa has invited us to attend a meeting of the Food Group Partnership in January, where the Food Standards Agency, School Food Trust and others will be represented. We will have an opportunity to tell them about Whole School Meals Ltd and our experiences to date.

We have also been invited to a conference in January that will look at the possibilities of local hospitals and schools collaborating to contract with local suppliers of fresh produce.

12 December 2006 - Visit by Liz Randall of the DfES
We were very pleased to host a visit by Liz Randall, who is a leading member of the School Food and Healthy Schools Team at the Department for Education and Skills.

Liz spent the day with us, learning about Whole School Meals Ltd, our history, progress to date and our aims, and telling us about the government's objectives for improving the quality of school meals nationally.

Liz Randall is in close contact with the School Food Trust and is looking forward to January when Prue Leith becomes Chair.

25 November 2006 - Press Release
The new school meals regime introduced by innovative local Schools Company, Whole School Meals Ltd, was put under the microscope by ten articulate children during a School Council consultation recently. The children, from Deal Parochial, Eastry, Nonington, St Mary's, Warden House primary schools told directors and senior staff from Whole School Meals what they thought of the meals they have been served since September.

Overall, the new menus got a 'thumbs up' from all the children who then proceeded to comment on each day of the three-week menu cycle. Wednesday roasts were the almost unanimous favourite - a weekly tradition that Whole School Meals intends to continue. The Spaghetti Bolognaise, made with several vegetables to make a rich tasty sauce, was another popular choice, along with Lemon Chicken, a Jamie Oliver recipe.
Puddings were a subject of considerable interest! One suggestion from the children was to 'have a really nice pudding on Mondays so we have something to look forward to after the weekend"! There were mixed views about semolina - it's true, you either love it or hate it, and there were about equal numbers of both. But Chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce was the clear favourite in the hot pudding league.

The children went on the examine the proposed new menus for the new year. Whole School Meals' Operations Manager, Julia Hallett, commented afterwards: "That was great. The children were very clear in their ideas and opinions and we shall be able to adjust the new menus now as a result. We would like to thank all the children and their teachers for taking part in this consultation and look forward to staying in touch and gaining further feedback in the future."

Whole School Meals Ltd is a unique company of which 75% of shares are held by 20 local schools. The company serves on average over 1,500 meals a day in the Deal and Sandwich area and produces freshly-prepared meals using local, Kentish produce. More information is available from their website.