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In a national first, cookery and nutrition students at Dover Grammar School for Girls are the lucky recipients of wild Alaska pink salmon to use in their classrooms, in a bid to improve their fish cookery skills.

The initiative is part of The Fish in Schools Hero programme which is run by the Food Teachers Centre, in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Together they will deliver an unprecedented 20,000 fillets of wild Alaska salmon to schools for cookery students to prepare up and down the country.

The programme aims to ensure that every child gets a chance to prepare, cook and eat fish before they leave school.

Students at Dover Grammar School for Girls will be learning about sustainability and nutrition as well as developing delicious dishes with the Alaska salmon in their practical classes.

Food and Nutrition teacher Mrs Anderson said, ‘We are thrilled that we have been selected to receive the wild salmon from Alaska. This rare opportunity allows our students to widen their knowledge on the tastes, textures and uses of Salmon and learn about wild fisheries. For some of our students, it means preparing, cooking and eating Salmon for the very first time!”

To support teachers, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and Food Teachers Centre have also developed sample lesson plans, a training workshop and video recipes by chef and former Masterchef winner Dhruv Baker.

Both teachers and students are completing the online Alaska seafood training course which is a deep dive into the Alaskan fishing industry and the different species available from Alaska; www.alaskaseafooduniversity.co.uk   

 

Rebecca Wilson, Trade Director for Alaska Seafood in Northern Europe commented, “We are delighted to partner with the Food Teachers Centre for their Fish in Schools Hero Programme. We have been working with Fish In Schools Hero programme for over a year to get the Alaska salmon into students’ hands and we are pleased that students will finally get the opportunity to cook with it.”

 

Simon Gray, Senior Associate at the Food Teachers Centre said, “94% of our teachers surveyed in 2020 wanted their pupils to use different fish and not to be scared of trying something new, but less than half of them used fresh or frozen fish. This unique opportunity overcomes the obstacles teachers face with regards cost, sourcing fresh fish, and cooking skills in schools to introduce students to wild, sustainable, healthy and delicious fish. We’ve created training to build teachers’ confidence, recipes to make their lesson run smoothly and delivered high quality fish that schools will love to try. We are excited to see the difference this will make to young people in the future.”

 

For further information please contact Alaska Seafood Marketing institute: asmi@wearelotus.co.uk / 020 7953 7470

 

About Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute 
ASMI is a public-private partnership between the State of Alaska and the Alaska seafood industry, established to foster economic development. ASMI functions as a brand manager of the Alaska Seafood family of brands in 21 countries throughout Europe, Asia, and South America and also maintains a prominent marketing program in the US. ASMI works to raise the value of Alaska’s seafood product portfolio through partnerships with retail grocers, foodservice distributors, restaurant chains, foodservice operators, universities, culinary schools, and the media. www.wildalaskaseafood.co.uk

 

About Teacher Resource Centre / Fish in Schools Hero programme

The Fish in Schools Hero programme aims to ensure that every child gets a chance to prepare, cook and eat fish before they leave school and to train food teachers to be confident in preparing and cooking fish with local students. Supported by the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust, Fish in School Hero (FISH) is managed by the Food Teachers Centre and their volunteer team throughout the UK. Launched in 2020, the programme will be extending throughout the UK, reaching over 60,000 pupils in 3 years. The programme is supported by local heroes: fishmongers, fish-loving chefs and fish suppliers. For more information, please visit https://foodteacherscentre.co.uk/fish-heroes/ and follow #fishheroes