Swansea’s school dinners mascot Captain Jack is calling on primary school pupils across the city to log onto his brand new website to have a chance to win a bike for Christmas.
Children can find out more about healthy and tasty school meals by logging onto www.swansea.gov.uk/schoolmeals from next Wednesday (November 25) when the site goes live.
The website features a treasure hunt for pirate pizza and Castell Howell Food Service has donated a brand new bike for the lucky winner who will be drawn before the end of term.
The website features information and fun activities for children as well as a section for parents and carers to find out more about healthy eating and what’s on the menu.
Children who log on can also download and colour in their own version of Captain Jack and their pictures will be displayed in an online gallery if they send them in to the address on the site.
The vast majority of Swansea schools have meals cooked daily on site by an expert team of catering staff. They are headed by Bet Jenkins who says school dinners are a fun experience as well as being healthy.
Bet said: “Captain Jack’s crew is about making the children realise that eating lunch isn’t just about re-fuelling. It’s a social occasion and a chance to converse with friends and develop social skills such as table manners.
“We have developed a range of freebies and have a number of fun initiatives set to take place in primary schools across the city next term. More details of these will be available in due course on our website.”
Throughout the autumn term Captain Jack has been visiting primary schools staging taster days so children can try out new tastes and flavours and discover what’s on the menu.
Bet said: “The children have really enjoyed the taster days. Many of them have been dressing up as pirates to be part of Captain Jack’s crew and more importantly they’ve enjoyed the food on offer – even those who haven’t really experienced school meals before.
“The feedback has been useful for us. We know what’s popular with the children and this helps us shape our menus.”
Swansea primary schools took part in Britain’s Biggest School lunch as part of National School Meals Week earlier this month. More than 7,500 primary school children took part – a four per cent increase on the average daily figure.
