School Food Champions

We are delighted to be working with Bite Back 2030, a youth-led movement for a healthier, fairer food system, as part of the first cohort of their School Food Champions programme.

The School Food Champions programme is empowering pupils at Laidlaw Schools Trust academies to put good food at the heart of a healthy, high-performing school community.

Schools Food Champions is a weekly extra-curricular programme for Key Stage 3 (11-14 year olds). Supported by a lead teacher, young people work in teams to review and improve the food provision and culture in their schools and their local communities.

"I want to do this because I want to help people who want to eat healthier but don't have the facilities to do it."

The teams work with school leaders, caterers and governors. With Bite Back’s support, the pupils learn about topics such as:

• Why social action matters
• Why food matters, and what we need to know about nutrition and food inequality
• What having a great school food culture means
• Running a food audit to understanding where your school is at
• Putting plans into action and designing your own school food culture project
• Continuing your social action journey

"By joining this campaign hopefully I can help make a difference to the children in school who, for example, don't have breakfast. They can get a snack or something when they arrive at school in the morning."

Through this programme, pupils benefit by having fun with friends while making a real impact by leading change on food issues across the school community, and building leadership and campaigning skills.

Meanwhile, teachers and schools have the opportunity to drive social action by enabling pupils to have a voice on issues that matter to young people and affect the whole school community.