Miss Scotland Sparkles as Moffat Academy Dinner Lady

Pupils at a Dumfriesshire school found their school dinners had some extra sparkle today (Monday, May 24th) when Katharine Brown, Miss Scotland, served them lunch.

Katharine was happy to don a dinner lady uniform to serve pupils at Moffat Academy a choice of Scotch Beef meatballs or Scotch Lamb burgers with salad and coleslaw as part of a healthy eating campaign she is working on with Quality Meat Scotland.

During a recent visit to Scotland Week in the USA, Katharine, who also holds the title of Miss UK, captivated legendary Scots, including Sir Sean Connery, but she was clearly equally at home chatting with pupils as they lined up for lunch at Moffat Academy.

The visit also saw Katharine, a tennis coach, chat to pupils about the importance a healthy diet and the role red meat plays in achieving that.

A fun poster to convey that message featuring Katharine is being displayed in hundreds of school canteens across Scotland. Quality Meat Scotland’s health and education team first became interested in working with Katharine when they noticed she was blogging about enjoying eating and cooking beef, lamb and pork during Miss World in South Africa.

"Katharine is a great healthy living ambassador for young people so we were delighted she agreed to work with us on this project," said Donald Biggar, Chairman of Quality Meat Scotland, who joined Katharine during today’s visit.

"As a tennis coach she also has a good understanding of the importance of nutrition in a healthy lifestyle and she’s very enthusiastic about the role red meat plays as a provider of energy and protein, iron and B-vitamins," added Mr Biggar, who farms at Chapelton, Castle Douglas.

Quality Meat Scotland has recently completed a project, jointly funded by Scottish Enterprise, to develop healthier versions of traditional Scots favourites including Scotch pies, sausages and bacon. The organisation also works with public sector buyers to highlight the importance of QMS Assured supplies and to track products back to farms of origin – highlighting the benefits of their sourcing policies to the Scottish economy.

Katharine has farming roots and she returned to a farm near Dunkeld where her family spent time during her childhood for the photography used on the poster set to be displayed in school canteens throughout Scotland. The poster shows Katharine relaxing during a walk on a hill at Rotmell farm where the Brewster family run cattle and sheep.

"As Miss Scotland I have fantastic opportunities to travel and meet lots of really interesting people which is amazing but life can also be very hectic so I make a point of ensuring I have the energy to make the most of the experience. I keep fit and eat well – and red meat has always been a part of that for me," Katharine said.