Expansion Plans in Place for Some Primary School Kitchens

Plans are in place to expand and refurbish four primary school kitchens over the Summer to prepare for the final phase of the roll out of Universal Primary Free School Meals in September 2023.

The schools getting extensions to their kitchens and servery's are St Gwladys Bargoed School, Ysgol Gymraeg Trelyn, Upper Rhymney Primary School, and Rhiw Syr Dafydd Primary School. This is needed to accommodate the extra meals which will need to be cooked and served for school years 3 to 6. As well as this, it will also enable us to offer the UPFSM to all primary aged children in the Caerphilly Borough, one year ahead of the Welsh Government guidelines. 

Last Summer, most schools had upgraded and extra equipment installed into their kitchens with a range of utensils, trays and cutlery, large ovens, refrigerators, freezers, induction hobs etc. There are also small upgrades taking place in secondary school kitchens to ensure the standards are maintained and additional services can be provided. 

Successful Community Cooking Champion Scheme Continues

The Community Cooking Champion was launched in September 2022, as part of the Caerphilly Cares programme to help tackle food poverty and insecurity. The course included eight weeks of cooking classes, prepared and taught by volunteers from CCBC’s catering staff as part of their corporate volunteer scheme and aimed to teach residents how to cook healthy, budget friendly meals from scratch. Participants also received recipe cards and a slow cooker to encourage them to continue cooking once the course is completed. The scheme is now running again for a further eight weeks after positive feedback from the first lot of volunteers. To join a waiting list for a Community Cooking Champion programme in your area email: caerphillycares@caerphilly.gov.uk or call: 01443 811490.

Eat Them to Defeat Them Campaign

The vegetables are taking over the world and in order to defeat them, the kids need to get eating them! This is a national campaign that is aimed to inspire kids to eat more healthily and help tackle rising childhood obesity.

So far since the campaign started in 2018, it has led to 1.4 billion extra children’s sized portions of veg being sold at retail. Caerphilly had amazing success in previous years being a part of this campaign and our overall goal is to get children excited and expand their knowledge on vegetables.

There are plenty of fun activities, recipes, and resources for at home and in schools online, click here.

Eat Them to Defeat Them Schedule 2023 

Tuesday 28th February- DEFEAT The Tomato and Leek Pasta Bake with Cheese

Wednesday 8th March- DEFEAT The Thyme Roasted Parsnips

Monday 13th March- DEFEAT The Curry Roasted Cauliflower

Thursday 23rd March- DEFEAT The Chicken and Spinach Curry

Thursday 30th March- DEFEAT The Cottage Pie with Mashed Root Vegetable Top

Tuesday 24th April- DEFEAT The Rainbow Pepper Pizza

Please note- These items will be put on in ADDITION to the standard menu options. This is to give the children a chance to explore different seasonal vegetables available. 

All recipes will contain allergens. 

What's On The Menu?

Primary Schools currently follow a three-weekly menu. These menus can be found on our website along with the timetable of what menu will be used on each week of the current year. To find this week's menu, click here. Information on secondary school meals and menus can be found here. 

Comic Relief Theme Day!

The following Theme Day for Comic Relief will be offered in all Primary Schools on the 17th March. This will replace the standard meal for that day.

Theme days are an exciting way for children to sample a variety of different foods.  Additional choice will be offered.

Please be aware that the Theme Day menu will contain allergens. Please contact the Catering Department if you require further information on 01443 864055, or email www.catering@caerphilly.gov.uk

School Catering Jobs 

There are various opportunities for you to join the Caerphilly Council catering team to help provide school lunches for children across the borough.  Jobs available include: Assistant cooks Breakfast club supervisors Breakfast club assistants  Cooks in charge Kitchen assistants Working for Team Caerphilly has a wide range of benefits including pension, fair rates of pay, holidays, and salary sacrifice scheme etc. Visit our website for all the latest vacancies.

Contact Us

Telephone: 01443 864055

Email: www.catering@caerphilly.gov.uk