The students join nearly 8000 others from across the country, who are this week cooking and tasting freshly cooked dishes made with British mussels. Truro High’s students created Thai Style Mussel Broth.
It’s all part of the ‘Fish in Schools Hero’ programme which is run by The Food Teacher’s Centre and The Fishmongers’ Company’s Charitable Trust.
Truro High’s Food and Nutrition teacher, Mrs Lisa van der Lem explained: “Learning how to prepare and cook local produce is an incredibly important part of our curriculum here at Truro High so it’s been great to see our students practising how to prepare and cook sustainable fresh shellfish. They learned how mussels are rope-grown and harvested sustainably and the ways they provide key nutrients. Many of our students have never eaten mussels before, only a few had cooked them themselves.”
The national programme has been spearheaded by Simon Gray, Senior Associate at the Food Teachers Centre UK.
He said: “Mussels are one of the most under-utilised shellfish in this country, so we are getting young people to try them in the safe, positive environment of their food and nutrition lessons. This would not have been possible without the amazing industry partners offering to support this so that there is no cost to schools.”
The 2 tonnes of grade ‘A’ rope grown mussels sent out to thousands of school children as part of the programme were donated by Offshore Shellfish. Fowey Shellfish and M&J Seafood offered support in logistical processing and delivery.
