A Healthier Choice For Primary School Catering

Fresh Start is the name Devon Catering Services has given to menus we have developed and successfully introduced, throughout the 2005/06 school year, to all primary schools in Devon which have a catering service with us. Indeed, so successful was the management of the introduction of Fresh Start, that our Fresh Start team won the LACA Management Team of the Year Award 2006. From September 2006 your school will have chosen to adopt either the 2 choice summer menu (283KB - pdf help) or 3 choice summer menu (285KB - pdf help).

The principles of the Fresh Start menu are simple:

• Produce a good quality meal providing one third of the nutritional requirement for a child
• Uses freshly prepared ingredients, locally sourced wherever possible
• Increases the availability of fresh vegetables, fruit and yoghurt
• Reduces to a minimum the amount of choice available to ensure a balanced diet is available
• Removes processed food, with the exception of high quality sausages which are locally produced

Following Fresh Starts introduction DCCS is now committed to supporting the Fresh Start project and ensuring its continued success. To enable this DCCS have brought together an experienced team dedicated to ensuring our staff deliver the menus in the best way possible.

DCCS firmly believe these new meals will really benefit our children's health. Reports indicate that pupils are better behaved in the afternoons and their concentration has improved. They are a lot more alert and better able to apply themselves to language and written work.

This is an exciting time in school catering provision and Fresh Start is a reflection of that. For Fresh Start to be successful it needs the support of as many parents as possible and I hope you will ensure that success by encouraging your child to try these new menus, letting us know what they enjoy and what we can improve. If you would like to comment on this new service or any other service which can be found on our website , then please use our response page.