Parliament
Chef Russ Ball Speaks to Parliamentary Group
Award winning school chef Russ Ball, of Pokesdown Primary School in Bournemouth attended the ‘All Party Parliamentary Group’ on School Food, hosted by chair and Labour MP Sharon Hodgson.
In attendance were school food charities, caterers, local authorities as well as the Department for Education.
Russ delivered a moving speech documenting his journey from a chef working in fine dining and hotel restaurants, to working as a school chef out of a school-cupboard-turned-kitchen, delivering fresh, nutritious and exciting school food, alongside a food education curriculum, which sees him and his team dressing up as Vikings and cooking on fire pits for students.
Chef Russ is one of many school chefs working in schools day in day out, determined to make better possible. School food doesn’t have to be bland, being and boring: it can be fresh, exciting and adventurous, and school chefs like Russ prove it.
His speech also addressed the powers that be in the room, asking them to act when it comes to hungry children living below the poverty line and going without Free School Meals: