The whole catering industry is supporting school meals today thanks to an initiative with the Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. You can ask local chefs, waiters, bar staff and front of house teams to work with you to promote school catering. We are looking for 10 schools that we can pair up with restaurants, hotels or pubs to create specific events on 9th November. If you are interested in finding out more please email nsmw@avfmarketing.co.uk.

On the website you can download a draft letter to send to local contacts in the industry about working together to promote catering to young people. You can also download our FAQs document with advice on how to run the day, a press release and a range of posters to promote it.

These downloads will help you run today

Here are some ideas to make this day a success:

• Team up with a local restaurant and ask their head chef to come and cook a school meal for the day. Perhaps it could be a job swap and a school cook could visit their hotel or restaurant at another time.
• A local bartender could come into the school and show pupils how to make delicious fruit smoothies. This is a great way for pupils to learn more about getting their 5-a-day.
• You could invite a restaurant manager or head chef to come and talk to the pupils about the different job roles within a kitchen or restaurant.
• Waiting staff could talk to the children about how to set a table properly and teach them which cutlery to use for the different dishes e.g. soup, fish, meat, pudding. Pupils could even help set up the dining room for a school lunch.
• Arrange for Secondary School pupils to get work experience in the catering industry. This could be part of a competition where the winners get to work in a hotel as their prize.