A few weeks ago I was able to connect with Vivion Powney, Business Development Manager for Glanmore Foods to have a chat with her about the food offerings available from their company.

How does Glanmore Foods develop their menus? Do you include feedback from Parents, Teachers and students?

Our menus are formulated through an annual survey that we send to our participating schools each year. We also talk with representatives from the H.S.E. regarding any new items or recommendations. When we have agreed proposed changes to the menu we then send products out to trial in schools. After this process items are deleted and new items added to the menu.

In our recent menu change we added the following items: Carrot Sticks, Sliced Peppers, Fresh Pineapple Chunk, Babybel Cheese, California Raisins & Curried Rice.

Do your menus meet the daily recommended caloric intake for children/young adults?

We make every effort to ensure that our healthy lunches are as wholesome as possible: Our lunches contain an option for a whole fruit and a different sliced fruit each day. Our healthy white bread contains 4% fibre (white bread contains 1.8% fibre). Our hi-fibre soft WHITE roll contains 7% fibre and has no additives preservatives or E numbers (this product is unique to Glanmore Foods).  As we have our own bakery we determine what goes into our products.

How are the lunch programs at school funded?

The school lunch programmes are funded by the Department of Social Protection.

What’s your approach regarding including organic or local itesm on your menus?

We are a member of Guaranteed Irish and buy Irish where possible. We have achieved the National Q-Mark for Hygiene and FoodSafety (beating over 2,500 Irish business’) We facilitate factory visits from schools which are very educational and encourage everyone to stop in for a tour.

As the school year enters into its last few weeks of class, maybe now is a good time to reflect back on the year that come to pass and start jotting down a few notes of things that worked and things that we could all improve on. The summer break is a perfect time to research new teaching methods and be inspired by other educators around the world. Here is a link to a few websites we enjoy perusing and we hope you will enjoy them too.