Public Sector Sustainable Food Procurement Initiative - A Trio of Essex Schools Raise Much More Than Awareness
Case Study: Beckers Green Primary School, BraintreeRegion: East of England (Essex)
Organisation: Primary School
Description:
Beckers Green Primary School has 303 pupils on roll. It only assumed responsibility for its own catering on 19 April 2004 after the contract negotiated by Essex County Council came to an end.
Staff and governors welcomed this development because it gave them the "push" they needed to move in a direction they really wanted to go. They were aware of the opportunities it offered to improve school meals and also to ensure the lunch hour made its own contribution to the school's drive for high standards.
The number of pupils eating a cooked lunch each day had for some time averaged 100, of whom almost half were entitled to a free meal (out of 76 eligible). Four weeks into the new system, and before any thing has been done by the school to advertise or promote its new meal service, this number has increased to around 120. It is going up weekly, in spite of the fact that the school has also increased the meal price by 10p (to £1.50) to reflect its improved quality and the larger sizes of the portions.
Benefits
- there has been a large increase in adult meals being bought daily, showing that at this early stage, staff in particular are aware of the big improvements taking place.
- the Chair of Governors, Mrs. Lesley Bojko, a food safety expert and a former Environmental Health Officer, assumed the lead role. She has helped the school set up procedures that promote "best practice" on nutrition, food handling, hygiene and general health & safety.
- Lorraine Marsay the school Catering Manager describes herself as "busier but much happier". She enjoys the additional freedom to run the kitchen in the way she believes it should be run. She also likes the feeling that she is now working directly for the children instead of for a profit-making company and she is increasingly proud of the service the kitchen is able to provide.
- although in its early stages, the changes already made mean that fresh fruit and vegetables are now being sourced from a local fruit and vegetable wholesaler.
- children were consulted in advance by questionnaire about what they would like to eat, and to increase pupil involvement, a competition was run to name the new meal service. It delights in the title of "Cool Kids Café".
Lessons learned during implementation
- Currently there are three staff working in the kitchen. Lorraine works for 22½ hours per week and the Kitchen Assistants, for 13¾ and 7½ hours per week respectively. The school expects that it will need to increase their hours soon, not only because of the increased number of children eating a cooked lunch, but chiefly to reflect the fact that less processed food is being bought and more "home cooking" is being done.
- A potentially useful development though one not yet properly underway, is likely to be the school's involvement in a cluster with two or three neighbouring schools in the near future. The possibility of such a cluster has presented itself as a result of some of Lesley's professional work and it is hoped it might provide opportunities for Catering Managers to discuss shared issues and concerns and to benefit from each other's experience.
- For some time the school has run a "Lunch Club" whereby local senior citizens are invited into school once a week, to have lunch with the children and afterwards, if they are willing, to play chess and similar games with some of them. The school sees its new meal service as an important opportunity to promote the club and, hopefully, to encourage more to attend in the future.
Future developments
Lesley, the Chair of Governors, hopes in the near future that the school will be able to examine the issue of suppliers in some detail. She would especially like the school to be able to obtain some produce from organic suppliers, if affordable.
Another job both for the Head Teacher and for Governors in the near future will arise from their decision, recently made, to devise a school "nutrition policy".
Further information
The case studies have been published in EAFL's guidance booklet, Providing Meals in Essex Primary Schools, distributed to every school in Essex, and can be seen in more detail on EAFL's website, www.eafl.org.uk
For further information, please contact East Anglia Food Link, The Street, Long Stratton, Norwich, NR15 2XQ on 01508 536666 or info@eafl.org.uk
Further information on implementation of the Sustainable Food & Farming
Strategy in East of England is on the web site of the Government Office
for the East of England.
www.go-east.gov.uk/goeast/our_region/regional_strategies/
Page last modified:
23 September 2005
Page published: 13 August 2004