Kinross High School Wins Tilda Together
Tilda Foodservice has crowned Kinross High School in Perth as this year’s winner of Tilda Together. Rewarding the Scottish school with a £500 cash prize and a Tilda Together Day in partnership with Mary’s Meals.
Returning for a fourth year, the popular competition saw over 40 schools compete to win the Tilda Together Day with Kinross scooping the prize, thanks to Home Economics Teacher, Catriona Cairney’s winning entry.
Over 160 pupils from across the school got involved in the activities with the Home Economics class enjoying a nutritional talk and cookery lesson from leading dietitian and nutritionist Lucy Upton. The Geography students learnt about the school-feeding charity from Mary’s Meals ambassador, Richard Lloyd and the English classes packed backpacks to support the charity’s valuable work in Malawi.
Speaking about winning the day, Catriona said; “It was such a wonderful surprise to win the Tilda Together competition! As a school we have supported Mary’s Meals four years ago and the pupils really got behind the charity, raising an incredible £16,000.
“The Tilda Together Day has been a great way to once again raise the profile of Mary’s Meals throughout the whole school. It also links in well with our food of the world course where we look at how rice is a staple food across the globe. Our pupils have learnt so much – it’s been a really good day!”
Tilda Together provides a platform to share with school pupils the nutritional role rice plays as part of a balanced diet to help feed healthy bodies and minds. Recommended by the School Food Standards, Tilda’s Brown & White rice is a 50:50 blend of wholegrain and white rice, combining the health benefits of wholegrain with the taste, ease of cooking and popularity of white rice.
Talking about the day, Annette Coggins, Head of Foodservice, Tilda UK said;
“The Tilda Together Day has been beyond our expectations and I was blown away to see the pupils cooking a cuisine they normally wouldn’t get to try and really embracing the flavours. I was genuinely moved by the Mary’s Meals talk and it was fantastic to see the pupils’ engaging with it. The whole day has reinforced why Mary’s Meals is such an important charity for us to partner with and the huge difference they are making to help children around the world receive an education.”
Showcasing the flavourful world of rice, the pupils cooked up Jollof Rice with Chicken from this year’s Tilda Together recipe book, using Brown & White.
Leading the cookery lesson, Dietitian & Nutritionist Lucy Upton added;
“I don’t think I can stress just how important it is to teach from a young age about eating healthily and Tilda Together has been a fantastic opportunity to do this. Rice is a staple ingredient around the world and Tilda’s Brown & White offers a mix that kids enjoy eating, whilst providing additional nutrients they need including fibre, vitamins and minerals. Another great part of the day was Mary’s Meals, they are a charity that is really close to my heart, and share the ethos of nutrition being essential within education settings.”
Since July 2018, Tilda Foodservice’s charitable partnership with Mary’s Meals has seen 101,000 meals donated to the school-feeding charity when caterers purchase Tilda Brown & White, Tilda Wholegrain Brown Rice and Tilda Brown Basmati.
Richard Lloyd, Community Ambassador, Mary’s Meals added;
“Thank you to Tilda for this fantastic opportunity to inspire so many young people and share with them Mary’s Meals vision for feeding school children all around the world. We now provide a staggering 1.5 million school meals every day. Tilda’s support is so important because we always want to reach the next hungry child whose life can be changed by Mary’s Meals. Alongside learning about our schools’ meals initiative, it’s also been great to have the pupils involved in packing backpacks, these are going to be very well-received!”
The whole of Kinross High School also had the chance to celebrate Tilda Together with Campus Catering Supervisor, Bernadette Woodhouse creating a special lunch menu for the day, incorporating all the pupils’ favourite rice dishes.
Speaking about the menu, Bernadette explained; “It’s hugely exciting for the school to be involved in today and so we’ve tailor made our menu with all their favourite rice dishes to celebrate Tilda Together. The Chicken Jambalaya is always a hit and I cannot begin to explain how popular curry days are here, they just love the Chicken Curry with Rice.
“Typically, we have rice on the menu 2 – 3 times a week and this helps with one of our biggest challenges – allergens. We are seeing a lot of children with coeliac disease and many choosing to follow a gluten-free diet and serving rice makes a huge difference to help us meet as many pupils needs as possible with dishes they love.”
As part of winning Tilda Together, Kinross High School also received 25kg of Tilda’s naturally gluten-free Brown & White rice, providing a welcomed boost to the menu and kitchen.
Speaking about winning Tilda Together, Sarah Brown, Headteacher, Kinross High School added; “I was very excited when Catriona told me we’d been selected for this day. Home Economics is such a vibrant part of our school, working closely with many of the other departments. Having the chance to connect with Tilda has provided another string to their bow, giving the young people a golden opportunity to discover the role rice plays in their nutrition. The connection with Mary’s Meals has also been a great link for us and has encouraged our pupils to really think about other young people living in very different situations to themselves.”
For every 5kg bag of Brown & White, Wholegrain Brown Rice and Brown Basmati purchased, Tilda donates 7p – the cost of a typical portion of rice in the UK to caterers – and what’s needed to provide a life changing daily meal through Mary’s Meals to impoverished schoolchildren across the world.
