A new campaign targeting Bradford schools will encourage them to put nutrition and healthy eating at the top of the agenda.

Education Catering Services (ECS), Bradford Council's in-house school catering provider, has announced it will be starting the initiative in September to help take schools' food policy beyond lunchtime.

ECS feeds 45,000 pupils across the district every school day and has won health awards.

This comes after Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced a £280 million package to improve school dinners.

This will pay for a Food School Trust to be set up which will provide advice to schools and caterers, and £130 million will go towards spending more money on dinners.

A further £90 million will be available for training staff or time to prepare fresh food.

And celebrity chef Jamie Oliver presented Downing Street with a 271,000 signature petition for the Feed Me Better campaign.

ECS business development manager Roger Sheard said every school in Bradford would be able to sign up for a Food in Schools toolkit which would give staff ideas on how to include the importance of healthy food in all aspects of the curriculum.

"The toolkit will support the whole school approach to school food policy and it will be available for every school in Bradford whether we cater for them or not," he said. "It's not just about what young people are eating, it links with their exercise, science and all curriculum subjects.

"ECS welcomes the opportunity for head teachers, teachers, governors, parents and carers to work with their catering provider to develop a whole school approach to food policy which goes far beyond the lunchtime service including the food that is brought into schools."

ECS already works with children to show them how to cook and various events are held in schools to raise awareness about healthy eating.

It also spends above the national average and locally-sourced foods are used as much as possible.

Last summer the company won the Local Authority Catering Association's Primary School Catering Team of the Year Award and Mr Sheard won the Outstanding Achievement Award in the national

competition.