Why Take Part?

Here are 10 great reasons for your school to take part.

If you are undecided about taking part in National School Meals Week (NSMW) then these reasons might help you decide to "Get Involved" this year.

1. It is estimated 17,000 schools took part last year. This was made up of local authorities, foodservice contractors and individual schools in England and Wales. This means it is the biggest promotion of healthy eating in the country. It will attract local publicity and you will have a great opportunity to promote both your school and the lunch time service.
2. Market research after the 2010 week showed that schools had an average sales increase of 6.3% and this follows on from the year before where the sales increase was 7.8%. The sales increase was maintained for another month despite the bad weather in 51% of participants. This means it is a great way for any school to increase meal numbers and this in turn helps with your financial performance.
3. NSMW helps increase awareness about what you are doing to promote healthy eating in your school. This is particularly important with parents as they have to decide if and how much they will give their children for a school meal.
4. There are five different themes so you can take part between one and five days, the choice is yours. This enables you to make your week special for your school. You can follow our ideas or come up with your own. All we ask is that you tell us what you are doing so we can help promote your week via the media and the website.
5. The themes can work in both Primary and Secondary Schools so it's possible for all schools to take part.  Have a look at the themes available and then decide which will work best for your school. You may want to do something each day.
6. All the ideas and themes of this year's NSMW will work as part of a whole school approach so you can get teachers, pupils, parents and others on board.
7. This year we have more teaching materials than ever before so make sure you tell them about the week and get them involved in the planning early on.  Adverts will be placed in the Times Educational Supplement.
8. Thanks to LACA and the LACA Partners it is free for all schools to take part.
9. Make sure you download the "How to organise NSMW guide" and the planning tool. The guide is full of ideas and the planning tool will help you delegate the necessary actions to your school team.
10. Network with other people in the school catering industry via Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. This can be a great way to interact with parents especially if you can put something about the week in the school newsletter.

All LACA asks in return is you let us know what you are doing so that it can be publicised to the media via www.iloveschoolmeals.co.uk.