News
HRH presents the Food For Life Partnership Awards
1st December 2008
The Prince of Wales today praised a new awards scheme which rewards schools that teach children about where their food comes from.
He paid tribute to organisers of the Food For Life Partnership for attempting to benefit young people know little about where the food they eat comes from.
The new awards scheme, led by the Soil Association of which The Prince is Patron, encourages schools to improve their "food culture" and gives people the opportunity to plant, grow and cook their own produce and eat healthier meat and fish.
In a speech The Prince said: "Over the last 40 years it would appear we have created a whole generation, the parents of the children you teach, whose understanding of where food comes from and how it is produced is severely limited. And it is causing real harm.
"The over-reliance on packaged, processed food is not just damaging our own health, but damaging our bio-diversity, our soil to agro-chemicals and our water table to pesticides."
The Prince went on to praise celebrity chef Jamie Oliver who he described as a "remarkable man" for his efforts to improve the quality of school dinners in his TV campaign launched in 2005.
The Prince, who has run his Home Farm at his estate in Gloucestershire using organic principles for more than 20 years, went on to highlight a scheme where hospital trusts across the country are sourcing their food from local farmers in order to improve quality and cut down on bills.
He told the audience of senior school staff and industry figures from the farming and organic world: "The ideal would be to create local hubs, not just at hospitals, but schools too, who should buy local food from hubs of local farmers."
The Prince spoke of the importance of the task ahead.
He said: "It is about rescuing today's generation of over-industrialised children, about instilling in them a life-long appreciation of food and the way it is produced and reconnecting them with nature..."
The Food For Life Partnership is made up of a number of bodies and led by the Soil Association.
It aims to transform the "food culture" not only in schools across England but in the communities they are based in.
Under the partnership's award scheme schools aim to meet certain criteria. This could range from ensuring pupils can visit a local farm, to serving meals that are 50 per cent local and 30 per cent organic to earn progressively more demanding awards, falling into bronze, silver and gold categories.
Twenty schools won bronze awards at the ceremony held at the prestigious Royal Society of Arts and six received the silver honour from The Prince.
The school named the over all winner was St Peter's Primary in Wem, Shropshire where pupils keep chickens and grow their own produce which is used for school dinners and run cooking and gardening clubs for parents.
Head teacher Ian Nurser said the success of the project was feeding into other areas of the school as the children were now energised and excited by learning how to grow their own food.
He said: "We don't know what kind of jobs will be around for these children when they grow up, so it essential we prepare them for life in general and growing and cooking food are some of the most vital life skills we can teach them."
Click here to read The Prince's speech.