Norse Catering has teamed up with Norwich City Football Club for another four-week, healthy eating programme for children in Norfolk and Suffolk schools.

Active Canaries Health Month sees the Championship first team chef work with the catering company to serve school meals inspired by some of the top footballers in the county.

On four Thursdays in March, pupils from participating schools will enjoy dishes designed by chef Dan Savage and Norse Catering’s menu development team.

The dishes are inspired by players Angus Gunn, Kenny McLean, Onel Hernandez and Kathryn Stanley and the food they like to eat to help power them on the pitch.

The dishes include Mango and Lime Chicken, Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry, Beef and Bean Chilli Taco and Roasted Vegetable Lasagne.

Children will learn the basic nutritional information for each and will be given a recipe card to take home to help them recreate the meals with their families.

Clare Jordan, Marketing Manager at Norse Catering, said:

“We are delighted to be working with Norwich City Football Club and the Foundation again this year.

“Our emphasis is always on serving nutritious meals. The menu development team at Norse Catering concentrates on making sure every school meal we serve is carefully planned to ensure it is healthy, balanced and adheres to school food standards.

“Active Canaries Health Month brings a whole new dimension to healthy eating as it presents the concept to children in a way they can really relate to.”

In addition to the weekly meals, Norwich City’s Community Sports Foundation will deliver online wellbeing workshops to classes on Wednesday mornings, focused on nutrition, hydration, mental health, and exercise.

Norse Catering provides nutritional meals to 180 schools in Norfolk and Suffolk, with more than 75% of the ingredients coming from local suppliers.

Active Canaries will see approximately 6,000 children from participating schools sit down to the special dinners across the programme’s four-week duration.

Dan Savage, chef for Norwich City’s first team said:

“We had great fun putting these dishes together with the players; I am delighted to play a role in helping to improving the health and wellbeing of local pupils.

“We were very impressed with the healthy school meals that Norse Catering serves every day.

“The dishes we designed also balance all the important areas of nutrition and we hope that our involvement will further highlight to the children what they need to eat to be healthy.”