Pupils at a South Tyneside school tuck into meals from across the globe

The youngsters at Stanhope Primary School tucked into cuisine from across the globe to celebrate International School Meals Day.

Cook at the Gresford Street school, Lynn Curtin, and her staff conjured up a range of delights for the students to try.

Lynn, who has been a school cook for 26 years, said, they decked the food hall in flags from other countries and the children had a great time enjoying their food.

She said: “We had good old mince and dumplings to represent Britain, we had pasta and pizzas for Italy, mixed bean fajitas to represent Mexico and sweet and sour chicken for China.

“The children are brilliant, they absolutely loved it. They really like to try anything new.”

Lynn, who works for South Tyneside Council, said a huge amount of effort is being put in to provide healthy food for the children and teach them about making good choices.

She said there is always a salad bar available with a huge range of fruit on offer and the children always have access to fresh water.

Lynn, who has won a couple of awards for her work in developing healthy eating in the school, also runs an after school club, cooking with children and their parents.

Developed by the Children’s Food Trust and sponsored by Tesco, the club shows parents and kids how to cook up easy, nutritious meals together.

Lynn said: “It is a really successful club and we have some fantastic feedback. We cook a two course meal and we all sit down together to eat.

“Often parents will say the kids won’t sit still, but they do. They will say ‘my child won’t eat that’ but they do.

“We find that when the children have a hand in making the food themselves, they will eat it.

“It also teaches parents the basics of cooking and showing them that you really don’t need to spend a fortune to make home-cooked meals.”