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Chefs in Schools Celebrates Chefs in Blackpool
The doors of Abingdon Street Market opened to something a little different recently. Instead of the usual lunchtime rush, the space hosted a School Meal Takeover, a celebration of ten school chefs who have just completed an intensive training programme designed to transform the future of school food in Blackpool.
Blackpool Council Catering Services has become the first in the North West to graduate chefs from a ten-week programme delivered by Chefs in Schools. The programme focuses on strengthening kitchen teams, raising the quality of school meals, and improving health outcomes for children.
Behind the celebration lies a strategic decision. The council chose to prioritise professional development for a team serving 6,000 meals a day across 17 schools. In a town where childhood obesity rates are among the highest in the region, with 26.8% of reception-age children and 42.5% of Year 6 pupils classified as overweight or obese, according to the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, the investment is both symbolic and practical.
The School Chef Educator programme builds on existing skills, introducing advanced culinary techniques, deeper nutritional understanding, and leadership training. Crucially, it adapts restaurant-level practices to the realities of school kitchens: tight budgets, large volumes, and strict School Food Standards. The focus is on locally sourced, high-quality ingredients, creative vegetable-led dishes, and reducing food waste, small shifts that can have a big impact.
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Naomi Duncan, chief executive of Chefs in Schools, used her speech at the event to underline the scale of the opportunity:
“In schools we have a magical opportunity to both feed children, and also teach them about food. To introduce them to new flavours, the occasional surprisingly delicious funny looking vegetable, to make food about pleasure and fun as much as about filling bellies.”
She went on to stress that change depends on people:
We need to recognise that the business of feeding children is a serious one, and the people who do it every day are serious people – just as deserving of training, development and recognition as every other professional in a school.”
Councillor Jo Farrell, cabinet member for communities and wellbeing, highlighted the link between nutrition and a child’s ability to thrive at school, describing the training as an investment in both wellbeing and professional pride. The chefs, she said, embraced the opportunity to expand their skills, and the new menus unveiled at the graduation event offered a glimpse of what that investment looks like on the plate.
For the chefs, graduation is not an end but a beginning. They’ll continue developing their expertise while mentoring colleagues across Blackpool’s school kitchens, embedding new standards and fresh ideas throughout the service.
As Duncan told graduates directly: what is happening in Blackpool is “not just improving meals in your schools…you are helping to redefine what school food looks like in this country.” Blackpool is showing how school food can become a catalyst for broader change one meal at a time.
