Schools sample lamb for St Andrews Day thanks to Mart

Pupils across Orkney will be enjoying lamb this St Andrews Day for their school meals 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 meals. The campaign is a joint effort between members of the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS), the National Farmers’ Union Scotland (NFUS), Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), and the National Sheep Association Scotland (NSAS). Livestock marts around the country have been donating Scottish lamb to aid celebrations.

Locally, the Orkney Auction Mart decided to cover the cost of providing lamb to Orkney Islands Council’s schools catering service, to help school kitchens provide the special menu.

It’s planned the special menu will be the first of several themed days throughout the school year.

Rob Crichton is Interim Manager of the Orkney Auction Mart – and an Orkney Islands Council elected member.

He said “The Mart is delighted to be involved in this promotion and is happy to donate lamb to the schools to both give pupils the opportunity to try something new, 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.”

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:

• Traditional Scotch Broth - made with Scotch Lamb.
• Lamb pitta pizza - made with succulent Scotch Lamb.
• Vegetarian haggis - Served with local neeps and tatties.
• Spiced winter fruit with creamy vanilla rice pudding - made with fresh Orkney milk.

For more information about the Lamb for St Andrews Day campaign visit the Quality Meat Scotland website.