By Patrick LowmanJUST like pubs, the village cricket pitch and the Sunday roast, fish and chips is one of the great British institutions.Although health experts quiver at the very thought of it, the customary dish of battered cod and chips, sprinkled with salt and vinegar, would be near the top of culinary treats for most families.

By Patrick Lowman

JUST like pubs, the village cricket pitch and the Sunday roast, fish and chips is one of the great British institutions.

Although health experts quiver at the very thought of it, the customary dish of battered cod and chips, sprinkled with salt and vinegar, would be near the top of culinary treats for most families.

Nowone lucky family is being given the opportunity of winning a year's supply of one Britain's oldest traditional meals.

Steve and Michelle Boggis, who run Ye Olde Fish and Chip Shoppe, in Sudbury, are offering a family of four a meal of their choice, up to the value of £20, once a week for the rest of the year.

The couple have offered the prize to help raise money for St Gregory's Primary School, where their six-year-old daughter, Courtney, is a pupil.

Mr Boggis said: "Fish and chips is a favourite with lots of people, it is one of England's most traditional dishes.

"We always try to support the school and we thought this would be quite a novel way of raising money. If you work it out the prize we are offering is worth £1,000 in total.

"We think it would be a great prize for anyone to win and it would give them a weekly treat. We are a very traditional old-style shop, which has been established for 79 years, so the winners can be assured they will be getting top-quality fish and chips."

The school is holding its summer fete on July 24, where people can buy tickets for the draw to win the fish and chips and a whole host of other prizes.

Tickets for the draw are also available from Ye Olde Fish and Chip Shoppe. All proceeds from the fete will go to the Friends of St Gregory's School.

n Schoolchildren have been learning that healthy eating can also mean a diet loaded with calories and fat.

For servicemen in battle conditions, the most important thing is keeping their calorie intake up and a day's rations will include between 4,300 and 5,000 calories, about twice the recommended intake for an average person.

Military caterers from RAF Honington set up a field kitchen at Ixworth Middle School to demonstrate healthy eating of the kind found in the base canteen.

Squadron Leader Owen Ditch said: "They need so many calories for their job, but they don't want to overdo it, either. We try to have meals that are carbohydrate-loaded, but they need quite a high percentage of fat – about 20%. They just burn that."

A day's rations includes everything from chocolate to orange drink powder, boil-in-the-bag corned beef hash and, for breakfast, hamburger and baked beans.

patrick.lowman@eadt.co.uk