MAKING A MEAL OF IT
Two Wishaw schools put their own spin on ‘feed the world’ last week when they celebrated International School Meals Day.
The annual event aims to encourage children and young people around the world, with support from their teachers, to connect and talk to each other about the food they eat and the role that it plays in their lives.
This year’s theme, My Food, encourages pupils to share their favourite meal at school. Through the written word, drawings or photographs, they celebrated a rich diversity of recipes and demonstrated why particular foods are so special to them.
Calderbridge Primary School decided to dedicate the whole of last week to celebrating international dishes.
Themes included Scottish day, curry day, Italian day and traditional dishes day.
Thursday – American day – was among the most popular, with stateside delights on offer including hot dogs, cheese burgers, baked potatoes and wholemeal bread.
The school’s catering team also put on a New York deli salad bar serving cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and cucumber batons as well as fresh fruit, including pineapple, watermelon and melon boats.
“The children usually walk by the salad bar but, on American day, there was a pick and mix area and all pupils were encouraged to take something,” explained school cook Marcia Bryson, who said head teacher Pauline Clarke was heavily involved in planning the event and making sure parents were kept informed.
“They all selected something – and came back for more fruit, which was encouraging. We got very positive comments from the children. We like to see it as their cafeteria and we like to get their input through comment sheets which helps with our menu planning.”
At nearby St Aidan’s Primary, International School Meals Day adopted a superheroes theme.
The catering team served up a tasty chicken curry, as well as burgers, salad, sweet potato fries and fruit kebabs.
The creative kitchen staff also baked cakes decorated with Batman rice paper toppings.