Cooking Up Success – Parent Taster Evenings at Westmorland Primary School

Our Catering Team colleagues recently hosted two successful ‘Parent Taster’ evening events at Westmorland Primary School, providing parents with a valuable opportunity to experience our Schools Education Meals Service first-hand.

The events were led by Sharon Riley, our Cook in Charge, whose passion and dedication were evident throughout. Sharon works closely with the school to ensure we deliver a consistently high standard of service while fostering a positive and supportive team environment with the school community and our catering team colleagues.

Supported by Team Leader Kelly Brown, and our wider catering team, the events ran seamlessly and created a warm, welcoming environment for all attendees.

These evenings are specifically designed to encourage open engagement with parents, offering them the chance to ask any questions about our school meals service, while sampling a variety of dishes from our new Spring/Summer 2026 menu.

The events also provided an important introduction for parents of children due to start Nursery School, giving them insight into the quality and variety of meals on offer for their young children, and what to expect when they begin Reception School in September 2026.

A key highlight was the opportunity for parents to meet our dedicated catering team behind their children’s meals—bringing to life the passion and care that underpins our service.

Image: TLC’s Catering Team at Westmorland Primary School. Featured from left to right, Catering Assistants, Gemma Hughes and Toni Davies, with Sharon Riley, Cook in Charge, and Catering Assistants, Linda Daniels, and Fatou Touray.

Images: The parent tasting sessions presented dishes from our current Spring/Summer menus, which included delicious home-made Sweet Pepper and Tomato Pasta,Chinese Chicken Curry, and Cheese and Tomato Pizza.

The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive, with both parents and children praising the flavour, quality, and variety of the food prepared by Totally Local Company.

The events were lively and enjoyable, with special thanks to Headteacher, Martin Henderson, who helped create a fun and engaging atmosphere across both evenings.

Images: Our Catering Team at Westmoreland’s Primary School prepared a range of home-made dishes for Parents to try. The schools Headteacher, Martin Henderson, was also on hand to support the events.

We are also proud to celebrate the school’s recent achievement of a 5-star Environmental Health rating, officially known as a 5-star Food Hygiene Rating —this is the highest score awarded by local authority Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) in the UK. It demonstrates that the school’s catering services maintain ‘very good’ hygiene standards and fully comply with legal food safety requirements.

We extend our sincere thanks to Sharon and the entire team for their continued dedication and the positive impact they make every day.