What was the students’ initial reaction to the food they were served?

W: Today I’m going to talk to David Evans, who’s a school chef at Academy School in Wales. Now, David, this is a new school, isn’t it, and it takes a rather unusual approach to school meals?
M: That’s right. When the school opened about this time last year, the new principal proposed that school dinners should be compulsory. Some people thought she’d be crazy to go ahead with the plan, but she was determined to. We try to introduce a wide range of styles of cooking. Naturally , at first, students were a little dubious about the food. Most had only eaten what you might call "traditional" British food, so I think it was quite adventurous for them to try what they saw as unusual.
W: And rather than having a typical school canteen with individual students lining up to collect food from the kitchen, you have a different arrangement.
M: Yes, we have our restaurant system. We get everyone seated at about 12: 30 at tables of six and then one student from each table collects the food from the kitchen and serves it to the others. However, there’s still some resistance to this, particularly as a lot of our students come from homes where family members eat at different times. They don’t have the habit of talking around the table. But we see this as part of our mission, to give them basic social skills, so they can operate in an adult world.
W: And what about the staff here? What’s their part in this?
M: The staff are expected to eat in the restaurant and sit with students, but they’re not there to control things. They’re there to talk to students about the food they’re eating and in this way they learn about nutrition and how important it is to get the right amounts, and that having too much carbohydrate or fat isn’t a good thing.
W: And you always try to cook with fresh ingredients.
M: Yes, that’s right. Although we offer international dishes, both for nutritional reasons and because of environmental concerns, pretty much of the produce we use is locally sourced. We’ve also got a small herb garden behind the science block. It’s not always possible to get local produce, of course, but we do what we can.
W: And do you think the approach to food you’ve taken here could be adopted in any school?
M: It could be difficult to introduce this into an established school where, for example, chips and burgers are a regular feature of school dinners. Introducing a radical change when students are used to doing things in a certain way can be difficult. But any school could take some steps to make students aware of the importance of healthy eating. I’d certainly advise them to. Over time I think we’ll see most schools moving in this direction.