Food Week

National Schools Meals Week 2011 at S. Anselm's.

Mrs Northcott and the catering team were over the moon with the reaction of the pupils at S. Anselm’s towards National School Meals Week 2011. It certainly got off to flying start! 5 Countries were pulled out of a hat to give a focus for each day.

National School Meals Week aims to promote healthy eating and engage with our pupils about food. S. Anselm’s aims to create an interest in healthy food, we also encourage a whole school approach to healthy lifestyles and throughout the week we are re-inforcing healthy eating messages within different situations such as food tastings at breaktime, new lunchtime menu’s and educating the children about different food types from different countries. The Nursery, Pre Prep and Prep School are all involved with the all the taster sessions at break times and lunchtimes with the different themes running each day.

On Monday, the theme was Italy, a selection of breads, Olives, Sundried tomatoes and Houmous were tasted. The bread selection included BREAD 1: Rosemary and Rock Salt, BREAD 2: Olive Bread and BREAD 3: Sundried Tomato. It was great to see pupils trying the olives and sundried tomatoes! The facial expressions were certainly entertaining! For Lunchtime, the normal rolling menu was again suspended for the week and in its place were new dishes for the children to try.

For Italian day lunch all pupils enjoyed Spaghetti Bolognaise and Cheesy garlic pizza bread with a generous helping of profiteroles. Throughout the meal the children were asked to vote YES OR NO with tokens to enable us to see if the main course or dessert could be or is a real hit with the children and this can then allow the catering team to decide which successful dishes or desserts could be included in future menu’s at S. Anselm’s.


For afternoon tea the pupils were offered a new sandwich filling, tuna, sweetcorn and Spring Onion, along with a summer fruits smoothie and Orange and Poppy seed Cupcake. Again, the children filled out the voting forms to enable Mrs Northcott and the catering team to assess the popularity of each and every tasting.

On Tuesday, the Theme was France, the pupils tasted a variety of soups accompanied by a French bread. SOUP 1 was Butternut Squash with Roasted Red Pepper, SOUP 2 was Stilton and Broccoli and SOUP 3 was Chicken, Sweetcorn and noodle. The children enjoyed this and they were certainly looking forward to the French surprise of the day that was due to hit the S. Anselm’s pupils and staff.

Lunchtime was Beef Bourguignonne and selection of vegetables, again the children were invited to vote and then the announcement arrived………Yes, pupils were invited to try SNAILS !! The catering team carefully prepared the snails and they were presented with garlic butter. For each sitting, the children could volunteer themselves to try. In the pre prep we had 9 brave pupils, and in the prep school we had 104 brave individuals plus 7 courageous staff! There were certainly a few interesting faces from both the participant and also the spectators! All the pupils who tried Snails today achieved the very important “ I am a star in National School Meals Week”. Many congratulations to all those who had a go!

Dessert was Crepes with Fresh Orange sauce and whipped cream. The pupils really did enjoy this, we could hear gaspes of YES as the crepes were delivered onto each table.

For afternoon tea the pupils were offered wraps filled with coronation chicken, banana milkshake and a toffee and date muffin. Once again, after each tasting the pupils had to complete a short questionnaire to enable feedback to take place on likes and dislikes. The children are already guessing the countries for the rest of the week and who knows there could be a few more surprises in store!

A huge thank you must go to our parents for their support with the preparation, the tastings sessions and lunchtime votings. Without your help the smooth running of the whole event could not take place.