Colin Jackson CBE reveals Britain's Favourite School Lunch at National School Meals Week 2009 launch

Despite the growing influence of international cuisine on our high streets, the popularity of celebrity chef cookery programmes and books featuring exotic dishes as well as the widening repertoire of school chefs to appeal to the taste buds of young people, nothing, it seems, can quash the popularity of traditional British fayre.

Today (Monday 9 November), former 110 metres World Championship hurdler, Colin Jackson CBE officially launches National School Meals Week (NSMW) 2009 (9 - 13 November) at Morpeth Secondary School in East London. He will reveal that our love affair with popular dishes such as sausages and mash for main courses and Bakewell tart for dessert continues unabated and British favourites still reign supreme regardless of whether you are 5 or 65+.

Prior to the start of NSMW 2009, people of all ages were asked to cast their vote online as to their favourite, or most fondly remembered, school meal from a choice of twelve typical school main courses and desserts listed on the NSMW website www.iloveschoolmeals.co.uk From a significant 3000 votes registered between July - October 31, the national winning Favourite British School Main Course by a substantial margin was Roast Dinner with Sponge Pudding and Custard as the resounding Favourite British School Dessert. Nothing, it appears, can beat a good old British roast and Yorkshire Pudding!

Now in its 17th year, National School Meals Week is organized annually by the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) to support a whole school approach to healthier eating by encouraging pupils and students to have a nutritious school meal and to adopt an active lifestyle.

This year, National School Meals Week has gone digital. It has switched to a completely new and up to the minute format with an online digital marketing campaign to reflect the growing familiarity and usage of the Internet by young people, parents and businesses in the public and private sectors. Schools, too, have become major users of the Internet for promotional, communication and educational purposes.

Entitled "Get Involved", the Week is proving to be the biggest event ever with over 90 school meal provider organizations taking part, equating to approximately 16,000 Primary and Secondary schools. NSMW 2009's new campaign has also won the support of the School Food Trust. Every year, NSMW is made possible by the generous support of LACA Partners and this year 24 of the school catering industry's leading suppliers of food, beverages, equipment and services are sponsoring the Week.

The Week's activities operate through its own website www.iloveschoolmeals.co.uk which is aimed at school caterers and Primary school head teachers, teachers, governors, parents and young people. Each day of the Week will feature different themes and events for Primary and Secondary schools. On Tuesday 10 November, pupils can go online and learn basic cooking skills by watching demonstrations by LACA's School Chef of the Year 2009, Debbie Mumford and on Friday, 13 November they can make thank you cards as a means of acknowledging the great work of their school caterers.

Secondary students can get active online on Wednesday and watch Colin Jackson CBE demonstrate a wide range of exercises they can do both at home and at school. On Thursday students are invited to film their own 15 to 30 second TV commercial to demonstrate how they would promote healthy school meals to their friends and colleagues. The entries will be judged by an independent TV producer with the overall winner of the best ad receiving a prize of £350, £250 for the runner up plus five more prizes available of £100 each.

Colin Jackson CBE says: "Healthy eating and regular exercise are vital messages for our young generation so I can't stress the importance of National School Meals Week strongly enough. It is a national focus on getting the balance right between what you eat and the amount of exercise you do. It is no good talking to children and teenagers and telling them what will happen in 30 or 40 years. The messages must be relevant to their lives now and using the communication tools they are familiar with. I have been into schools recently and seen the fabulous food that is served every day. My aim is to show teenagers how easy it is to exercise and my message will be ‘now you have worked up an appetite, why not enjoy a great, new school meal?'. My all time favourite was Shepherd's Pie, by the way!"

School Food Trust Chief Executive, Judy Hargadon, said: "With new nutritional standards now in force in all schools, National School Meals Week is a chance to highlight the hard work being put in to ensure that all children have access to healthy, well-balanced food at school.

"School food has been transformed; the historical decline in take up of school lunches has been halted, with most parents telling us that they think the quality of school meals is good and that it has improved in the last 3 years. The challenge now is to keep encouraging more children to try school meals, working together to continue improving kitchens and dining rooms, and in making sure all those involved in school food have the support they need to deliver an efficient, innovative service."

Commenting on the success of NSMW 2009's new campaign, Beverley Baker, Chairman of the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) says: "2009 is a major turning point in the history of National School Meals Week. We have a brand new format which represents a far greater opportunity than ever before to directly interact with young people through a medium they both relate to and enjoy. With a different theme every day that is integral to a whole school approach we can, through fun, relevant activities, directly engage with them and encourage them to adopt a healthier diet and lifestyle. Ultimately, our collective efforts with campaigns such as these, can start to make a real difference to improving their health for the future".

Contacts: Hazel Fancy, National Press Officer
T: 01483 574727
E: HaGreen7@aol.com