A RENOWNED school meals provider has been thinking outside the lunchbox to ensure more children benefit from tasty and nutritious hot lunches. 

West Dorset-based Local Food Links is a social enterprise set up for community benefit. 

It has developed a model that enables small, rural schools without kitchens of their own to enjoy freshly prepared meals and now, with funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, it has produced a short film showcasing its work.

Gill Reynolds, catering manager at LFL said: "Just seeing children enjoying the food and knowing we’re feeding the children nutritious meals makes the job worth it."

Deborah Croney, Dorset County Councillor added: "This model is a fantastic option for schools that can’t afford to have kitchens put in themselves."

LFL is also now supplying meals to St Mary’s Primary School and Little Pips pre-school in Thorncombe, taking the total number of Dorset schools it works with up to 34.

Pupils are loving the varied, freshly prepared menus and the homemade Dorset Apple Cake is especially popular. 

Caroline Morgan, chief executive of LFL, said that she was delighted to be working in partnership with St Mary’s and enormously proud of the meals LFL supplies.

She said: "As a social enterprise, LFL is all about bringing healthy local food to people and working in schools allows us to help children develop a good relationship with food and great eating habits for life."

Tanya Robinson, head teacher at St Mary’s, said she had even tried the meals herself. 

She said: "They are delicious and so much more nutritious than packed lunches.

"I'm impressed with the quality of the meals and inspired by LFL’s commitment to buying from Dorset businesses."

LFL supplies 3,000 meals a day to 34 schools in Dorset from four kitchens based in Bridport, Dorchester, Blandford and Shillingstone.

78 per cent of the ingredients are purchased from Dorset suppliers, with 95 per cent from south west suppliers.
Caroline said that LFL has plans to expand even further over the coming year. 

Schools interested in working in partnership with LFL should contact Caroline by email at caroline.morgan@localfoodlinks.org.uk