Read the latest school food blogs, including Irene Carroll, Former Chair of LACA as she talks about healthy school lunches and the build up to the week.

Some authorities might be wary of starting down the route of user generated content. This is where customers are given the chance to pass comment online about the food or service that their children receive. I can understand this concern but it is important to remember that most negatives can be made into a positive. This is what we aim to do with complaints and I know from my own experiences that complainants can be made into loyal customers and supporters. So if we encourage more feedback from our online customers the stronger the service will become. For example one authority I know had a negative comment about school meals contributing to the obesity problem. The Head of Service responded online and soon attracted four supportive comments and the negative was dealt with and everyone can see it. That is why user generated content has a role to play provided you use it properly. Another benefit that a colleague mentioned was how it showed elected members the way the catering service was interacting with customers and voters.

No these are not potential burglars but people that visit social networking sites to browse through the content. A bit like you are doing now. The aim is to attract their interest and keep it for as long as possible. That is why one writes a regular blog. At present we are going through the "lurker" phase where people browse but don't leave a comment. This is while people gain confidence in the site. I hope it won't be long before we have more people leaving comments and suggestions. I look forward to reading them. In the meantime thank you to the many people who have phoned and email me. It has been great to hear from you.

I am delighted to say that LACA has received financial support from the School Food Trust (SFT). This is brilliant news and I wanted to say thank you to everyone at the SFT for their contribution to the week. The money will be put to good use and help us improve the week still further. For example we can employ an athlete with a higher profile, increase the value or number of competition prizes and add more resources to the website.

I also want to say a big thank you to Mark Lewis from Caterer and Hotelkeeper and David Foad from Cost Sector Catering. They have agreed to support the week and promote the event via their magazines. A number of ideas are under discussion so look out for more information in the next few months.

One of the benefits of NSMW this year is the team of people that are involved. It means lots of ideas are fed into AVF Marketing to help with the plans. For example Hazel Green, LACA PR, suggested running the online vote to find Britain's Favourite School Meal before the week and announce the results on the Monday. Chris Wainwright, Communications Director from the SFT, suggested "Get Eating" as a theme. Both of these have now been incorporated into the plan. So if you have any more ideas then please let us have them.