Lamb back on the menu at schools for St Andrews Day thanks to the Mart

Pupils across Orkney will, once again, be enjoying lamb on the school menu this St Andrews Day after a kind donation from the Orkney Auction Mart.

The special menu is part of the national “Lamb for St Andrews Day” campaign, aimed at encouraging Scots to adopt lamb as their choice for St Andrews Day (30 November) meals. The idea of donating lambs for schools was started by members of the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS) in 2020, when Scottish marts donated over 50 lambs to promote the campaign, which is backed by livestock auctioneers, red meat levy body Quality Meat Scotland and butchers.

In a bold move to supply free lamb to as many Scottish schools as possible during St Andrew’s week, the IAAS is launching a “Lamb Bank”. The scheme will allow farmers selling any sheep via IAAS marts to donate lambs for the initiative.

Between now and 30 November, farmers selling lambs through Scotland’s marts can opt to donate sheep for the Lamb Bank, all they need to do is to let auctioneers know when they book stock in for sale.

Orkney Auction Mart is fully on board with the initiative and has covered the cost of providing lamb to Orkney Islands Council’s schools catering service, to help school kitchens provide the special menu – something they have agreed o do again this year.

A spokesperson for the Mart said: “We are delighted to be involved in this promotion and happy to donate lamb to the schools to both give pupils the opportunity to try something that may be new to them, and to support the wider campaign of encouraging people to sample one of Scotland’s premium products, produced with some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. If sellers wish to come on board and donate a lamb, we will also be delighted to accept.”

Chair of the Council’s Education, Leisure and Housing committee, Councillor Gwenda Shearer, said “We’re delighted to be invited to benefit from the campaign. We’d hope it helps both widen the culinary experience of our pupils as well as further raise the profile of our local producers here in Orkney who do such a fabulous job raising quality livestock in the county.”

The menu on St Andrews Days at Orkney schools will be:

• Orkney leek and tattie soup
• Slow cooked pulled Orkney lamb wraps
• Vegetarian haggis served with Orkney tatties and neeps
• Spiced winter fruit with creamy rice pudding made with fresh Orkney milk

The schools catering team run several special themed menus throughout the year.

More information about the Lamb for St Andrews Day campaign.