YOUNGSTERS can't get enough of the healthy local food being dished out at Ilkley's All Saints Primary School.

Since the school said goodbye to contract caterers and introduced its new way of providing meals, the number of children having school dinners has more than tripled from 72 to 220.

"It has proved very popular and now we have problems getting them all through in time," said Head teacher Peter Marsh.

He added: "We have been delighted with the community response as well."

As well as providing balanced and nutritious meals, the school is also trying to source its raw materials from within a 12-mile radius of the premises on Skipton Road.

Mr Marsh said: "This keeps traffic off the roads."

Butcher David Lishman has donated £1,000 towards the school project and two families have each donated £500.

Mr Lishman said that he thought that food was a very important aspect of life and he was glad to help the school fit out its new kitchen to be able to cook meals.

Previously, the kitchen at the state-of-the-art new school had ovens which could only reheat previously cooked meals.

When the school decided on the policy, letters were sent to local businesses asking for help. Mr Lishman said: "It is something we are interested in - we want local children to eat properly."

With the money supplied by Mr Lishman and others, the school was able to buy equipment for the kitchen which was needed to cook fresh meals.

"It is nice to be able to put some decent food into kids' bellies," said Mr Lishman, whose shop on Leeds Road supplies the school kitchen with fresh meat.

He said: "It is not just the eating, although that is very important, it is also the social aspect of sitting down and eating together."

Mr Marsh said: "It is a wonderful success story and we hope to keep it going although there is still some equipment we need."

He said that the school would like to get rid of another re-heating oven and get more food processing equipment and a fridge.

And he praised the four staff in the kitchens who have had to make the transformation from simply re-heating previously prepared food to preparing fresh meals from scratch.

Mr Marsh said: "They have been tremendous. It has been a huge learning curve for them and they are worth their weight in gold."

Because of the upsurge in popularity of school dinners, the school may have to take on more kitchen staff in the future but at present, workers and parent volunteers in both the kitchen and dining room are able to cope.

"We are lucky because we have really community-minded parents helping us out. Without them I don't know what we would do," said Mr Marsh.

He said he wanted to thank Dentist John Muirhead, who has a practice in Skipton, and whose son attends All Saints, for his £500 donation, and also Mark and Jan Sayer, of Myddelton Construction Ltd, whose two boys attend the school, for a similar gift.