Doncaster school children rewarded for healthy eating

13th May 2009, 12:04pm

Six schools in Doncaster are trialling an initiative that sees rewards handed out when pupils choose healthier options from the schools' lunch menus.

School children at Conisborough Ivanhoe Junior Infants, Moorends West Road and Scawsby Rosedale primary schools, together with Hungerhill, Ridgewood School and Hallcross Lower secondary schools, are all taking part.

For three weeks in May, primary school children will receive a Lego brick every time they purchase a healthy school meal.

These Lego tokens will then be exchanged for an end of year party. The more tokens collected, the more activities will be provided at the party.

In addition, each week prizes will be given for the class eating the most school dinners.

The class collecting the most tokens at the end of the promotion will be treated as VIPs at the end of term party. There will also be a bigger "family" prize at each school for one lucky child who has had a lunch every day over the promotion period.

Secondary school children will receive a raffle ticket every time they purchase a healthy school meal. As well as having a 1 in 10 chance of instantly winning a free drink, raffle tickets will also be entered into draws to win a wide variety of daily and weekly prizes, together with a big end of promotion prize worth between £300 and £450.

The project is being run by the School Food Trust with the support of the Local Authority and the schools involved, and will be supported by advertising.

Adrian Pickersgill, Doncaster Schools Catering Manager for Doncaster Council, said: "Tackling the effects of poor diet and rising rates of childhood obesity is a key priority for us. We're committed to increasing the number of children eating healthy school meals as a way to combat this. This initiative will help enormously by showing how meal take-up can be improved by using targeted promotional activities."

Based on the results of the pilot scheme in Doncaster, and a similar scheme taking place in Worcester, the promotion will be rolled out on a larger scale next year.

Related Articles:

• 23 Jun 2009 - Dudley school wins a tasty £5k cash prize
• 18 Jun 2009 - Darlington school pupils take part in Ready Steady Cook contest
• 16 Jun 2009 - Pupils test the menu at Parklands High
• 10 Jun 2009 - St Aidan's High wins Best School Dinners 2009
• 09 Jun 2009 - New guide helps special schools to meet food standards
• 15 May 2009 - Eden's Bristol City contract expanded by another 10 schools
• 13 May 2009 - North east feasts on school food training
• 12 May 2009 - School cook retires after 19 years
• 06 May 2009 - Jobs saved by head's school dinner plan
• 01 May 2009 - Durham, Newham and Wolverhampton to pilot free school meals
• 20 Apr 2009 - South East School FEAST hosts Easter conference
• 19 Feb 2009 - Devon's school meals achieves national recognition
• 22 Jan 2009 - Big up school canteens
• 17 Nov 2008 - School cooks to benefit from eight new centres

Click here to submit a comment!

Have your say!

To comment on this article, simply enter your name and email and send us your views. Please note that your comment will appear publicly below this article once it has been processed. For enquiries please email info@costsectorcatering.co.uk.