A SECONDARY school in Sedbergh has received an award for their healthy menu.

South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) invited all secondary schools to take part in Healthier Menus for Schools Award that is being run in collaboration with Cumbria County Council and other local authorities.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage children to make healthier and more informed food choices, picking more fruit and vegetables and less saturated fats, sugars and salts.

Settlebeck in Sedbergh is the second school to be awarded the Healthy School Menu Award after meeting all the requirements after Cartmel Priory also received the award last month.

To achieve the award the schools must meet a set of requirements, including how the menu and food is displayed and the ingredients used.

Schools must prominently display healthy foods, ensuring the healthier options are enticing, and are competitively priced against other choices.

The choices on the menu at Settlebeck are cooked fresh each morning and use locally sourced foods. None of the food is fried and processed frozen foods are not used.

Settlebeck Head Teacher, Dr Judith Greene said: “This Award is a great way to recognise the wonderful food produced by the Settlebeck School kitchen team, Pat, Hayley and Olive.

“It's also very reassuring to myself, and to the parents, to know that the Healthy School Meals team endorse the quality of the food provided at Settlebeck. It means we can be confident that our youngsters are being well fed, and learning about healthy eating.”

SLDC’s portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, Cllr Graham Vincent, said: “This is a great scheme for schools to get involved with. It is very important to encourage children to pick healthier food to reduce health problems associated with diet.’

“This award helps us to achieve our council plan commitment to enable health improvements through collaborative and preventative action, targeted at addressing health needs and reducing health inequalities.”

The Queen Katherine School in Kendal is also working towards meeting the requirements, said the council.