A nursery is celebrating after scooping a prize for offering healthy meal options to children in its care.

Busy Bees nursery in Thetford was randomly seslected as the winner of a Breckland Council prize draw, open to all local premises which has signed up to the council's Health Options Norfolk (HONOR) award scheme.

The prize will see two members of staff from Busy Bees take up free places on a council-run Level 2 Food Safety training course. The course helps people involved in preparing food to recognise potential food safety hazards and to develop advanced procedures to safely handle and provide meals.

Alison Webb, Breckland's executive member for people and information, said: 'By signing up to our voluntary HONOR initiative, this nursery has made a real commitment to providing healthy meals to youngsters which gives them a great start in life and hopefully sets them up for a lifetime following a healthy lifestyle.'

Amanda Evans, assistant nursery manager, said: 'We're pleased to have won this prize as we work hard at the nursery to provide fresh, nutritious and tasty meals for the children, using seasonal produce from quality local suppliers. The staff team at the nursery are always open to broadening their expertise in this area so we are looking forward to attending the training course.'

The HONOR initiative, which is run across Norfolk, recognises organisations involved in providing food who have added healthier options to their menu.

Companies which sign up to HONOR are required to demonstrate that they offer healthy eating options and enabling customers to swap food items for healthier alternatives.

The free scheme is open to all businesses involved with food preparation and which have a Food Hygiene Rating score of 3, 4 or 5. More than 120 premises in Breckland are currently signed up to the scheme.

The HONOR award also provides an opportunity for premises to achieve additional recognition by sourcing food locally, providing a breastfeeding friendly environment and acknowledging the facility as offering good disabled access. Busy Bees has also achieved each of these three standards.

For the second consecutive year, the nationwide nursery provider has retained the prestigious Silver Food for Life Catering Mark from the Soil Association for serving fresh and healthy meals and supporting local food producers.