‘Food For Thought’ (FFT) Catering
Food for Thought (Merseyside) Ltd. is a unique 'not for profit' healthy school meals caterer. It is a company owned and managed by its partner schools with any surplus created being re-invested in our local community schools.
Our school proudly provides freshly prepared meals for our pupils every day from locally sourced produce. The children receive a wide range of meals and the menu changes on a weekly basis. The children are given alternatives to the main meal choice to encourage independence and variety to the weekly dinners.
Our catering teams work hard each and every day preparing fresh ingredients. The children are thoroughly enjoying the variety and choice for their dinner.
A paid School Meal is at a cost of £2.00 per day - which is equivalent to £10.00 a week.
The Soil Association
In 2011, Food for Thought was awarded the Soil Association's Silver Award for its use of locally sourced organic produce.
In 2012, and again in 2013, the company was proud to achieve the prestigious Gold Standard Award. This highlights our commitment to very high standards of food sourcing by local producers:
Hannah Food Ltd. in Skelmersdale for dry and frozen goods.
Dickinson's (Total Produce) Based in Liverpool Fruit and Vegetable Market.
Cook's of Rainford supplies our locally sourced meat ingredients
We also source fresh, organic produce from our growing partner the YMCA at Dutch Farm in Speke, Liverpool. FFT are also founding members of the Liverpool Food Alliance in 2009 along with Squash Nutrition and the YMCA. We are also working closely with Claremont Farm and as part of the Liverpool Food People.
We use organic produce, locally sourced from our Ormskirk farm and we work very closely with all suppliers to ensure organic, free-range and sustainable food stocks wherever possible.
Our service to schools
Food for Thought works hard to consistently raise the standards of quality and presentation in all kitchens. Unlike any other school meals' company, FFT Ltd does not impose any rigid levels of portion control - pupils are allowed to choose the quantity of food they feel they need. In this way, we focus our meals' service on the needs of pupils themselves.
In many of our schools this could be the only freshly cooked,
hot meal choice they have each day.
Food for Thought Merseyside Ltd. is a unique 'not for profit' school meals company that is owned and managed by all its partner schools. Any of our Headteachers can become Directors of the Company if they wish. Any financial surplus created is returned to all our schools or reinvested in the company.
The background of Food for Thought
Food for Thought was established in 2003 by a group of six local Headteachers who had become disillusioned with the poor quality of food served in their schools. Working on an initiative to improve educational achievement, the Headteachers were linked with the local Sure Start programme, the local NHS/PCT and a number of local community groups to look at how to provide healthy school meals at an affordable price.
With initial local authority financial support, FFT became a reality and continues to work today to provide a high quality meals' service to its schools.
Our service to schools
Food for Thought serves over 50,000 meals each month in its twenty schools in Liverpool. For the last two years, having achieved the Soil Association's Gold Award, all our kitchens serve, in the main, free range and locally sourced meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. We are very proud of the fact that we are the only school meals' company in Liverpool to achieve this prestigious standard in the quality and sustainability of food we use in all our kitchens.
