One such session was held as a very successful 2-day event on nutrition, facilitated by Joe Harvey. This session covered areas such as: the Nutrition Action Plan for Wales, nutritional standards, local initiatives, dental health, policy development, new projects and resources.

The Statement included sections on:
—	The Whole School Approach
—	The National Curriculum
—	School Meals Service
—	Tuck Shop and Snack Provision
—	Drinks and Vending
—	Food Safety
Each section included aims, objectives and action plans for schools to follow.
As a result of this document and the work of the group supported by the Director of Education, a number of initiatives have been embedded in school and school catering systems.

Another successful project is the Funky Food Group initiative, which gives primary school pupils the opportunity to influence the type of food they eat through the school meals service. The Funky Food group consists of 4 pupils and a teacher from 4 primary schools, 2 area school meals managers, a school cook, a health promotion officer and a dietitian.

The schools involved have incorporated food and health into their curriculum and the pupil representatives discuss changes to meals and carry out pupil opinion surveys with their classmates. The pupils were then given the opportunity of designing an alternative school menu incorporating what they had learned in the classroom and through taster sessions arranged by the school meal service. The new menu is an alternative to the hot meal and includes a variety of sandwiches or baguettes, salad boxes, pasta, green salad, fruit boxes, cake and yoghurt. The pupil representatives gave feedback and were involved in changes to the menus throughout the pilot phase. The new menu has proved to be a great success increasing the number of pupils taking school meals in all 4 schools. Further schools are now being included in a rolling programme.

The success of the ‘Funky Food’ project has been the direct involvement of pupils at each stage and the willingness of the school catering service to invite pupils’ views and incorporate them in the development of the new provision.

New regulations from the Welsh Assembly Government on the implementation of school councils are expected shortly; a consultation document is due early in the autumn term ready for implementation by all schools in Wales by September 2004. This is exciting news regarding the importance of pupil involvement and as a result we are already seeing an increase in the number of school councils many of which are inviting catering staff to their meetings to address school-based issues.

The new Food Standards Agency document ‘Food and Well Being – Reducing inequalities through a nutrition strategy for Wales’ is providing further support for local schemes and initiatives and as a result of this document the Pembrokeshire Food and Health Statement for Schools is currently being amended and further initiatives planned.

A whole school approach and new initiatives to nutrition and health can be achieved but only with the cooperation of a number of agencies, the strategic direction of government agencies and local authorities and the involvement of staff and pupils. In Pembrokeshire we are now seeing this working and many changes being made.