The campaign to associate St Andrew’s Day with eating lamb has been stepped up across Scottish schools.
Meat, exceeding 1.25 tonnes of butchered lamb, has been donated by marts and farmers.
More than 9,800 school children will be cooking and eating the product in 114 primary and secondary school home economics classes and canteens next Monday.
A donation has also been made to a social enterprise café – The Usual Place in Dumfries – which is cooking lamb dishes all this week.
The Make It Lamb for St Andrew’s Day builds on the work of United Auctions which has been on a mission to promote the product since 2012.
Institute of Auctioneers executive director Neil Wilson said: “We have had an exceptional response from schools from Shetland to Castle Douglas, Arran to Aberdeen.
“This is a great opportunity for us to promote our customers’ lamb and also show that our auction marts really want to make a difference to consumer attitudes to lamb and to support the schools in our local areas.
“The more we can encourage the consumers of tomorrow, as well as of today, to enjoy cooking and eating lamb, the more we benefit the whole industry from farmer to retailer.”
Last year more than 1,500 people celebrated November 30 with Scotch lamb at organised events.
In the absence of social gatherings this year, the organisers turned to schools in a bid to increase sales.
