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“We are passionate about health and sustainability and would be delighted to see more London Boroughs specifying healthy and sustainable food in their catering contracts and training their catering staff in how to buy, prepare and serve good food.” Claire Pritchard, Director, Greenwich Cooperative Development Agency and member of the London Food Board

Training is essential to provide procurement and catering staff with the skills to buy, prepare and serve healthy and sustainable food. London Boroughs can help by training their catering staff in these skills. This is particularly important for local authority staff who feed vulnerable groups, such as school children, children in care, hospital patients, care home residents, prisoners and people in mental health institutions. Training programmes that can help include:

The Academy of Culinary Arts is Britain’s leading association of Head Chefs, Pastry Chefs, Restaurant Managers and suppliers. It focuses on the education, training and career development of young people in the hospitality industry through apprenticeships and awards. Chefs Adopt a School, the charity under the umbrella of the Academy, teaches primary school children about food, from plant to palate, in a fun and informative way, and reaches over 21,000 children in more than 500 schools each year, see: www.academyofculinaryarts.org.uk

Good Food Training for London is offered by a social enterprise run by Greenwich CDA, with a wide range of short training courses in healthy and sustainable food. The training was developed as part of a project funded by the Mayor of London, and is now run by a team headed up by Claire Pritchard, a member of the London Food Board. See: www.greenwich-cda.org.uk/seten/good-food-training-and-feast-centre/

The School Food Trust and the FEAST (Food Excellence And Skills Training) network helps caterers and cooks get the skills to provide healthy, legally compliant school lunches. It also promotes a culture of food quality to inspire future generations of school lunch providers. See: www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk, www.schoolfeast.co.uk

The training providers listed above all cover food safety in their training. However, for specialist food safety training towards recognised qualifications, see the courses offered by the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health: www.cieh.org/training/food_safety.html

“The Sustainable Restaurant Association helps restaurants and caterers to navigate the whole spectrum of sustainability issues. We would be pleased to support caterers and local restaurants throughout London to source food more sustainably, manage resources more efficiently and work more closely with their community.” Mark Linehan, Sustainable Restaurant Association, partner in the Food Legacy programme, and member of the London Food Board

“Growing food and learning to cook can change lives and has an important role to play in furthering practical and vocational skills and understanding the impact of food on the environment and, crucially, on our lives.” Sara Jayne-Stanes OBE, Director of the Academy of Culinary Arts, food writer, and member of the London Food Board