Plymouth City Council’s Education Catering Service achieves prestigious gold Food for Life Catering Mark for serving fresh and healthy meals.

This means that the Education Catering Service in Plymouth is only the second local authority caterer in England and one of just six school contract caterers in the whole country to achieve the Soil Association’s Gold Food for Life Catering Mark for serving fresh and healthy meals made with local and organic ingredients.

The Education Catering Service provides its Gold standard meals to 67 primary schools, five special schools and two nursery schools and serves around 8,000 meals each and every day of the school year.

The service has focussed on sourcing fresh, local and seasonal ingredients to produce the nutritious and tasty meals that are proving to be real winners to the children and young people of Plymouth and has been able to move from bronze to gold level in little over a year.

An independent report by the New Economics Foundation in 2011 identified that the impact on the local economy of the procurement and purchasing approach adopted by the service was that the additional spending on school meal ingredients generated £1.2 million a year, a return of £3.04 for every £1 spent.

The Education Catering Service was also awarded the Good Egg Award by Compassion in World Farming in November 2011 for its sole use of fully certified free range eggs in all of its recipes and menus.

The service is a founder member of Food Plymouth and a signatory of the Plymouth Food Charter which aims to improve health and well-being and to create a more connected, resilient and sustainable city through increasing the demand and supply of delicious and affordable, fresh, seasonal, local and organic food.

The Catering Mark is a unique scheme which recognises restaurants and caterers who serve fresh food which is free from controversial additives and better for animal welfare. More and more, people want to know where their food comes from and how it was produced. The Food for Life Catering Mark offers a guarantee that fresh food you can trust is always on the menu.

The Catering Mark is open to all types of restaurants and caterers. The bronze, silver and gold tiers offer a step-by-step route to serving more freshly prepared, locally produced, seasonal and organic food. Caterers with the gold Catering Mark use a wide range of organic ingredients and source half of their ingredients from the local area.

Commenting on their achievement, Brad Pearce, Education Catering Manager at Plymouth City Council said: “We’re delighted that our commitment to serving fresh, local and organic food has been recognised by the gold Food for Life Catering Mark.

“As our meal numbers continue to increase we know that the use of fresh, local, seasonal and organic ingredients is making a real difference to our customers and the perception of the City’s school food service as high quality and incredibly good value.

It’s fantastic to be recognised with this award but, more importantly, it’s great to know that we’re making a real difference and improving the health and education of the children and young people of Plymouth.

Explaining the importance of the Catering Mark, Rob Sexton, chief executive of Soil Association Certification, says: "The gold Catering Mark is a fantastic achievement on this scale so it’s brilliant to see the Education Catering Service in Plymouth gaining recognition for serving great fresh meals made with seasonal, local and organic ingredients.

“Serving menus to gold Catering Mark standards can significantly reduce carbon emissions and supports local businesses so this is a win-win for planet-friendly food and the local economy.”