Flourish pledge case studies

What they pledged

Norse Catering pledged to involve children and young people in decision making for primary school menus.

About the pledge

Norse Catering provide school meals to many Norfolk schools. 

Their pledge focused on what school children wanted to see on school menus. Children were consulted on what they did and did not like, which helped Norse Catering to develop menus.

This pledge helped the children to learn about health and nutrition and empower them to make positive choices. Healthy eating information was provided as part of the consultation process.

Due to the success of this pledge, Norse Catering grew this commitment. They engaged with school councils in more schools as part of the menu pledge. 

The impact of this Flourish activity has been considerable. Student councils across Norfolk schools are now routinely involved in menu tasters and sharing ideas on what they would like to see on the menu.

Talking to children across schools has also enabled Norse to:

• Sense-check menu ideas
• Understand how tastes are evolving for its young customers

This approach is now supporting over 16,000 of the county's children to Flourish.

"Our Flourish pledge created engagement opportunities with our young customers. It opened up discussions around healthier choices and provided context for children about how we create our menus to ensure they are nutritionally balanced. We were absolutely delighted to win the 'Understood' category at the first Flourish Norfolk awards, it meant so much to us that children feel listened to and that their voices are influential in the decisions we make as a business."

Director, Norse Group