Town Hall nets A* for its fishy school meals in Tower Hamlets

Town Hall bosses have netted an A* rating for their fishy school meals.

They’ve been recognised this week for being the first education authority in London to serve up only sustainable seafood.

Tower Hamlets is one of only four London education authorities which have been given A* rating by the Marine Stewardship Council, which runs the world standard for sustainable seafood, for helping protect the Earth’s oceans.

East End schools already serve fresh dishes recognized by the stewardship authority including fish pie, cod steak in a herb and cheese crust and Caribbean fish.

School cooks from this coming term are also serving piri piri salmon fillet and salmon tagliatelle.

“We felt it was important we didn’t buy endangered fish stock,” Mayor Lutfur Rahman said. “Tower Hamlets council made the decision 10 years ago to source sustainable fish for all school meals and was the first London borough to do so.

“Our schools support fisheries that are helping to protect the environment and fishing sustainability.”

But elsewhere the message about sustainable seafood has sunk beneath the waves. Eight-out-of-10 London primary schoolchildren are missing out on sustainable fish, according to the Marine Council’s ‘end of term’ report.

The government’s School Food Standards at the end of last term showed only 18 education authorities in Greater London were serving up sustainable seafood. New standards become mandatory from January, with recommendations that schools choose fish from verifiably sustainable sources.