Educating catering teams to make vegetables more appealing to children

Chefs in Schools have joined forces with Riverford, the organic vegetable box company on a “vegucation” campaign. This teaches school catering teams how to make vegetables more appealing and encourages children to grow and eat more vegetables, as research shows that only 18% of children aged 5 to 15 eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables per day.

Riverford is donating £330,000 to the charity to train up school chefs in Devon and Cornwall.

Laura Mumford, Director of Transformations at Chefs in Schools, says, “This partnership aims to transform school food by ensuring that over 40,000 children in the region have access to nutritious, tasty, freshly made meals every day. What children learn about food in school, they take home to their families and communities too.”

There are two types of training – fully funded shorter training courses and in-depth transformations. The shorter training courses include a mix of online modules and one in-person workshop, spread over eight weeks so that it can fit in around a school’s staffing requirements. The workshop, held at Riverford’s Field Kitchen and Baddaford Farm kitchen, give school chefs a day out from the kitchen to update skills and knowledge. Laura says, “They cook new recipes, learn a few kitchen hacks and how to present food to make it more tempting.”

Four year programme

Chefs in Schools are also offering in-depth transformations where the charity works with a school for up to a year to revamp the food on offer and improve food culture across the entire school. “Everything is given an overhaul including menus and ingredients to food education. We aim to ensure children experience new ingredients and flavours that spark curiosity. We also want to get schools growing produce so children can see where food comes from and help to grow it. These programmes are available at a subsidised rate to schools thanks to Riverford’s funding,” says Laura.

The aim of the four-year programme, which started in 2023, is to train 255 school chefs in Devon and Cornwall. With the intensive transformation option, the charity hopes to help 13 schools in the region, reaching 3,900 pupils.

Laura says, “We offer similar training in Yorkshire and London. We would encourage any school to get in touch to find out more if they’re keen to improve the food on offer. It’s not just the children that benefit but teaching staff too. School kitchen teams deserve to be invested in and given training so that they have the confidence to feed children well.”

Find out more

Visit the Chefs in Schools website for more information.