CurriEco: Food for Life celebration at the Scottish Parliament

Scotland’s real food heroes were celebrated at a recent parliamentary reception to recognize those working behind the scenes in schools and communities across Scotland to improve our food culture. Staff and pupils from CCHS were there, celebrating the success of the school over the past two years with the Food for Life Scotland programme. Ministers spoke in glowing terms of the work carried out by Currie Community High School.

Laura Stewart, Director of Soil Association Scotland said: “Food for Life Scotland is working to ensure more people can access fresh, healthy, tasty food, and increase local, seasonal and organic ingredients and, in turn, helping our natural world to thrive. Our aim to ensure 'good food for all' and these Food for Life champions are working hard behind the scenes to make this a reality.”

At the event our pupils and staff presented to around 200 guests, including ministers and MSPs, and were interviewed live by STV! Currie is the only mainland secondary school to have been awarded the Bronze Food for Life Catering Award, serving food that is better for pupils and better for the planet. Currie CHS has been selected as a “pathfinder” school in Edinburgh to develop four key action areas for food: Culture, Catering, Curriculum and Community.

Our pupil team in one of the committe rooms at the Parliament

Speaking front of around 200 delegates

On the 3^rd February, after school, three 3^rd year pupils (Mairi Mitchell, Katie MacBeth, Abigail Odetayo) and one 2^nd year pupil (Gregor Menzies) went to the Scottish Parliament accompanied by Mr Pache, Mrs MacKinnon, Miss Stuart, Ms Avery and Julie and Anne (from the Dolphin Café). This was to celebrate the Food for Life Award and schools serving fresh healthy food for pupils.

When we arrived we learnt about the bees that are kept at the parliament and how they are monitored. We then got to taste some lovely food that was made for us. The recipes were designed by a committee of people who work in school cafes across Scotland. The food included Carrot and Coconut curry, lentils in filo pastry, less beef beef burgers and beetroot and chocolate muffins and much more. After we got to listen to amazing talks given to us by schools across the country who had Food for Life Awards. We also gave a talk about the wonderful things our school has done to promote Food for Life and our hopes for achieving the Silver award and we are thankful to everyone who made it possible.

By Abigail Odetayo