Celebrating Southampton’s City of Culture bid through school meals!
We are excited to share that we have been working with the Southampton 2025 UK City of Culture Bid team to help Southampton’s young people be involved and celebrate this exciting opportunity for their city.
Southampton are through to the final eight entrants and will know if we have made it to the final four later in March. If we do make it through, an expert panel will visit Southampton before making their final decision - an opportunity for the city to ‘show off’ everything the we have to offer, and serve up an impressive Judges Lunch. We have been supporting the project for this – and as part of our support for the bid, we have co-created a school lunch version of the Judges Lunch.
Mauritian Turkey Coconut Curry with Afghan Pilau Rice followed by Pineapple Cake with Nutmeg Custard.
On Tuesday 15th March, participating City Catering Member Schools will have a special and exclusive UK City of Culture 2025 Bid Celebration Menu created and developed in partnership with Southampton’s local BBC MasterChef winner and Southampton 2025 bid Chair of Trustees, Shelina Permalloo. The adapted menu remains school plan compliant and offers pupils the opportunity to taste and explore different flavours and dishes that represent the diverse international communities of Southampton. Something that is so central to many themes within the bid.
As part of the celebration, the Bid team have invited young people to take part in a special art activity, with Kev Munday. Kev is a local artist whose fun colourful work can be seen all over Southampton. He has painted many things around the city – even a police car! Kev is creating a giant painting celebrating what is special about Southampton and is calling on young people’s help. Pupils in participating schools will be given a an entry form, and asked to draw somebody or something that makes Southampton special to them. We will collect them all up from across the City, and it will form part of Kev’s incredible piece of art! What a fantastic opportunity.
We also wanted to make sure that everyone could enjoy the menu and get a taste of the judges lunch - and have shared the recipes online as part of our Cooking at Home resources, empowering everyone to get involved in healthy home-cooking. Why not give them a go?
Curious about the Bid and what it means for Southampton? Watch Shelina introduce the Bid in this video below celebrating the special school lunch and giving us all a cook-along for the Pineapple Cake desert!