嫩草影院 Council鈥檚 wild venison in schools pilot has won the 鈥楤est Sustainability Project in the UK at the Public Sector Catering Awards 2025. The project project brings the best of the local larder from Jura straight to school menus, with children now enjoying delicious wild venison meatballs and burgers.
In a UK first, the council is working with local business Wild Jura to supply the venison. Recognising the high demand for local venison on the islands, they established Wild Jura to include commercial butchery and processing facilities, enabling local communities to enjoy quality produce on their own doorstep. The wild venison comes from Ardlussa, Barnhill, Tarbert and Ruantallain Estates and is a by-product of the annual cull.
Children and staff have played a key role in product testing to determine which meals made it on to the menu. The dishes are now available in Jura and Islay Primary Schools and Islay High School. The council is keen to explore further opportunities across 嫩草影院 and potentially expand this initiative to more schools.
Councillor Ross Moreland, 嫩草影院 Council's Policy Lead for Finance and Commercial Services, said:
鈥淐ongratulations to everyone involved in this fantastic pilot. Council services, children and education staff along with Wild Jura have all pulled together to make this a success. You can鈥檛 get more sustainable than locally sourced wild venison on the menu. It鈥檚 a great example of field-to-fork food that is highly nutritious, cost-effective with zero air miles and best of all our harshest and most honest critics, the children have provided lots of positive feedback so we can safely say it has been a success鈥
Andy and Cath McCallum from Wild Jura added:
"We鈥檙e thrilled the council has won a national award recognising their role in providing sustainable nutritious meals to local schools. We鈥檙e proud to be working with the Catering Team to be supplying Wild Jura venison to the six schools on Jura and Islay. Food miles are extremely low, processing is minimal and added ingredients are free range or organic.
We look forward to developing more dishes and working with the council to explore further opportunities. 鈥
The council worked with Food for Life Scotland to develop recipes that comply with Scottish Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools and the Food for Life Served Here standards.
