When the Soil Association launched its awards for the best primary school dinners last year, school food seemed damned — then came Jamie Oliver. Presenting the awards this week, he said: “There are lots of winners; the schools, the food producers and, above all, the kids who are going to grow up knowing what good food is.”

The three categories were The Highland Spring School Dinner Award for the best lunches; The Times Body&Soul Food Education Award for the best educational approach; and the overall winner, the Soil Association Food for Life School of the Year Award. The winners received £15,000 of kitchen equipment, courtesy of Hobart UK, Highland Spring and the Soil Association. Dinner lady Jeanette Orrey, one of the judges, said: “The schools I visited renewed my faith.”

HURLFORD PRIMARY SCHOOL, KILMARNOCK, EAST AYRSHIRE

Winner: The Soil Association Food for Life School of the Year Award

Cost of ingredients per meal: 75p

Cost to the pupil: £1.48

It’s generally agreed that to change school food you need the terrier-like commitment of one passionate individual: whether it’s a parent, teacher or cook. At Hurlford Primary School in Kilmarnock (263 pupils) that person is Robin Gourlay, the head of catering for all 55 East Ayrshire schools.

Hurlford is an urban village with high unemployment; a quarter of the pupils have free school meals and it’s unlikely that they would come across organic produce at home.

Last year, Gourlay started a pilot scheme at Hurlford, introducing organic and locally produced food, and importing new crockery and round tables to make lunchtimes more sociable. It has proved so successful, with a 10 per cent increase in uptake of school dinners in just a few months (to over two-thirds of pupils), that it has now been extended to ten other primary schools in the county.

The initiative has been praised both by the Scottish Parliament and the Prince of Wales, who visited the school in June.

Margaret Paterson, Hurlford’s cook, is thrilled with the results. “When I first came three years ago only one or two children would take vegetables. Now I hear them say: ‘Oh good, it’s broccoli!’ A lot of pupils never see vegetables at home or, if they do, it’s baked beans. Last Friday, we even sold out of salmon, which is amazing because at the beginning I was fortunate if I sold two portions. It’s just a matter of getting the children used to new food.”

Paterson cooks a wide range of dishes from stir-fries and jambalaya to good old staples such as mince pie and tatties. Gourlay says: “We are trying to expose the children to a much wider range of food so that couscous and roasted vegetables become normal and acceptable. Some of the dishes are quite challenging. We had to hold our nerve and, by repetition and encouragement from the catering staff and the teachers, they gradually got used to them.”

To help win the children over, local producers come in to talk to them. The farmer who supplies free-range eggs brought chicks with him, and the artisan cheesemaker from Dunlop held tasting sessions. Meanwhile, the school holds regular workshops and cookery demonstrations for parents.

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