We are proud of the partnerships that we have with various organisations within the Wigan borough. We have developed strong links and trialed a number of initiatives with schools, the Food in Schools Team and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.
Some of our most recent initiatives include:
- Procurement links with Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS trust (external link) .
- Composting - our school cooks provide vegetable peelings and left over fruit and vegetables for the composting bins.
- Visits to a local farm.
- Pass it on - our school cooks invite a small group of children to watch them prepare a recipe which they can then sample. They then give them the recipe card and the raw ingredients to take home and make the recipe for their family.
- Farmers market - this happens in some primary schools. Our supplier of fruit and vegetables provides the school with bags of seasonal fruit and vegetables which the parents can then purchase at cost price. Included in the pack is a recipe card and instructions on different ways to cook the items.
- Leigh Childrens Centre - this gives us the opportunity to display what our catering service does and answer questions from parents and carers. Suppliers also attend and provide samples for the public to try.
- Wigan Food & Drink festival - this is a great opportunity for us to show members of the public what we provide in school meals, the day comprised of 2 cooks preparing a menu then letting the public sample the finished meal. They were then able to take away the raw items and recipe card to try for themselves.
- Nutritional Analysis - we utilise a software package, Saffron to ensure nutritional compliance on all our primary and high school menus.
