School Meals in Milton Keynes

March 2010 - Another Fresh Look at Dining Areas!

With news/study findings announced from the School Food Trust last month, the message continues that the canteen environment/dining experience is crucial for meal take up (see link below):

www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/news_item.asp?NewsId=227

You may be interested in the SFT competition to win a canteen makeover (see link below for further details):

canteenrescue.getreal.uk.com/

As per above the recent research from the School Food Trust shows that children's biggest barrier to eating schools meals is the perceived lack of space and time to enjoy doing so. If you are looking for practical solutions, free resources and case studies to help you bring about lasting improvements to your overall school meal experience, then look no further than the Fresh Look at the School Meal Experience guide (Second Edition), which is out now.

To download or to order a hard copy click the link below:

SFT Edition 2

February 2010 - School Dinners Makes Winners Campaign!

The School Food Trust (SFT) has launched the above marketing campaign in Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton between mid January and mid March 2010. Its aim is to raise awareness and communicate to parents key messages about school meals, which include:

• School meals are nutritious and offer a wide variety for children
• A healthy school meal can help a child achieve their full potential
• Children perform better at school following a healthy school meal (improved concentration and behaviour)
• School meals offer good value and convenience.

The SFT campaign is running in a variety of local media, including buses, poster sites, press and radio.

If you haven't seen the campaign yet, click on the PDF posters below:

Poster 1
Poster 2
Poster 3
Poster 4


October 2009 - Cooking up a treat at Langlands School!

See article below

New Mini Kitchen for Langlands School!


See the below link for the latest School Food Trust News:

Latest SFT News


Contact us.....


Previous news items........

We hope the information provided on our School Meals page will be of interest to Schools, Parents, Governors, Caterers and anyone else with an interest in School Food. You will be able to find out how we currently operate in MK, information about the new Nutritional Standards for School Food and what we are doing here in MK with the government funding we have been allocated as a Local Authority. There are also many useful links. This information will be regularly updated to keep pace with this agenda and with both local and national progress.

From 6 July 2009 the MKC school meals contract was re-let to Cygnet Foods Ltd. This contract will run until April 2011 with the option to extend for a further two years. The central contract is for 64 primary schools and 9 MKC day nurseries. All schools within Milton Keynes were given the option to take part in this central contract. The MKC Client Services Team monitor this contract on behalf of participating MK Schools. Some schools have decided to make their own alternative arrangements for the provision of school meals, or run their own ‘In House' meals service.

Milton Keynes has few school kitchens and Cygnet will operate using their own central facility and 5 MK-based kitchen 'hubs'. Most schools in the contract will receive a "delivered-in" hot meals service. Using the School Lunch Grant allocated to the LA and Targeted School Kitchen Capital Funding, MKC is investing in this contract in terms of equipment and facilities. This will enable certain school sites to have ‘mini kitchens' which will allow more food to be prepared freshly on site e.g. vegetables, salads, hot puddings, fresh bread. All schools are being provided with a microwave (for the steam cooking of vegetables) and a hotplate.

Parents can order meals one week in advance or a whole half term in advance if they wish to do so.

For further information about Cygnet please see their website (link given below). The current menus provided by Cygnet in MK are shown below. Menus will be revised each term.

Cygnet Hot Menu March 2010

Spring 2009 packed menu

Cygnet Foods Ltd

The Cygnet customer service line is 01788 576509.

Not every MK school opted to be included within the LA wide contract and a small number of schools have an 'In-house' catering service (mainly Secondary/Special Schools) or make their own individual arrangements. Client Services meets on a termly basis with a group of 'In-House' Catering Managers to share ideas/good practice and generally offer support to those schools that run their own service. The authority has recently purchased nutritional analysis software and demonstrated this at a recent meeting to show how 'In house' schools might make use of this service to demonstrate compliance with the nutrient standards that come into effect in Sept 2008/09.

For more information Contact us.......

In a unique place such as Milton Keynes, with so many young people, we are working hard to ensure that the government agenda for improving school meals is driven forward. The Authority has been allocated a further 3-year grant (2008-2011) to help support the provision of healthy and hot (where possible) meals in MK Schools/PRU's. Currently the new standards do NOT apply to maintained Nursery Schools, though they will be required to continue to follow the existing 2001 standards. The Dcsf is currently consulting on The Early Years Foundation Stage.

School Meals funding in MK is devolved to schools, therefore the governing body takes on the responsibility for this provision. This will include, for example, deciding on the content and cost of meals, providing free school meals to eligible pupils and complying with the new nutritional standards for school food.