Thousands of pupils in school classrooms across the province have attended Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assured (NIFQA) demonstrations, where beef and lamb dishes were freshly cooked and sampled.
It was another record year of successful post primary school cookery demonstrations for the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC).
Sarah Toland, education and consumer promotions manager at LMC, said: “LMC demonstrators aim to educate young people about the farm to fork journey of NIFQA beef and lamb. These 40-minute demonstrations provide insight to the health and environmental benefits of beef and lamb. Pupils also see first-hand the versatility of these red meats and are invited to sample freshly prepared dishes.”
LMC cookery demonstrations are tailored to compliment the curriculum and learning outcomes of the class attending. Some of the common topics covered at a post primary level this year included macro and micronutrients, healthy lifestyle, NIFQA and traceability through the supply chain.
Lisa Daly, teacher at St Joseph's Grammar School said: “The demonstration covers theory in terms of nutrition, food provenance, food safety as well as practical cookery skills.”
Joanne Maguire teacher at St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon added: “I honestly found this demo excellent, good delivery and reflected a good breadth of knowledge across the course.”
Booked and busy
Sarah continued: “We were delighted with the uptake for this year’s programme, with Food and Nutrition teachers demonstrating a strong desire to avail of our demonstrations. All 375 available demonstrations were booked within one week of the programme launch. Antrim and Down schools accounted for the highest percentage of bookings, with demonstrations most commonly booked for year 10 classes across the board.
“As this academic year comes to a close, the LMC education team are already working to enhance the Commission’s 2023-24 programme. One exciting project for the coming year will be the delivery of several red meat skills workshops for post primary teachers."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
