Education back on the menu for school cooks

The college is one of 29 specialist centres and partnerships nationwide which have been formed as part of a project called School Feast (Food Excellence and Skills Training).

Each School Feast centre is part of a national training network set up by the Department of Children, Schools and Families through its School Food Trust and aims to improve the quality of school dinners.

Doncaster College has invested the Government cash in the brand new kitchens after winning a bidding process in November 2008, alongside Doncaster Council's School Meals Service and NHS Doncaster.

The college said the new centre will provide training and education for cooks, kitchen assistants, lunch-time supervisors, school business managers, school governors, leadership staff, pupils and their parents.

Across the national network, School Feast offers what the Government calls a "core list" of training and qualifications.

Added to this are localised, bespoke training courses which at Doncaster will include Food and Drink Service, Customer Service, Hospitality Supervision and Leadership Chef Diplomas and Professional Cookery.

Ms Leith, who is an ambassador for the School Food Trust, said: "The School Feast Network signals a training revolution for school cooks and other school staff.

"I'm delighted to help launch Doncaster's School Feast facilities, which will now play a key role in nurturing the school cooks of the future, training scores of staff across hundreds of schools in the region.

"This will help ensure more children and young people eat a healthy school lunch every day."

The School Feast network was originally established in October 2006 by the School Food Trust and the Government said it is "critical to ensuring school cooks have the skills they need to transform the quality and provision of school food".

It is hoped that Doncaster's purpose-built kitchens will provide a readily accessible supply of high-quality training and ensure the school food workforce is motivated.

Gill Parkes, academy director at Doncaster College, said: "The new School Feast kitchen facilities at the college will allow us to live up to our name and become a 'Hub of Activity' for the raising of standards and the up-skilling of the local school meals workforce."