26/02/2007

“Who ate all the veggie boxes?” could be the alternative cry going up at Celtic Park with the football club launching an ambitious culinary plan to replace junk food with organic fare.

While one objective is to persuade the pie and chip kiosks at the football ground to give up the grease in exchange for locally sourced, organic ingredients, catering operations manager David Stothers has started the ball rolling with a new initiative to encourage healthy eating among local school children.

He has brought together the Scottish Soil Association and chefs from the football ground’s restaurants with the club’s dietician to create healthier food made from locally sourced and almost 90% organic ingredients.

Appearing on Radio 4’s The Food Programme, Stothers said the new menu was tested out on pupils from two neighbouring primary schools and once they’d got over the excitement of eating at the football ground – failed to notice that chicken nuggets and chips had been thrown out in favour of wholewheat pasta and free-range sausages.

He explained that the scheme would give local people a nudge into eating better as well as planting the seed of healthy eating with other football stadiums and suppliers who would follow the example set by Celtic.