Public Sector Sustainable Food Procurement Initiative - It's Easy When You Know How!
Case Study: Fairchildes Primary SchoolRegion: Greater London
Organisation: School
Description:
Fairchildes Primary School near Croydon took over the management of its school meals because it thought the quality of the food on offer to the children was inadequate. The school was concerned that the nutritional standards were poor and the staff wanted the children to eat as much freshly prepared, locally sourced food as possible.
The school held the view that "you are what you eat" and felt it had a duty to encourage the children to be aware of good nutrition and eat a healthy, balanced diet. Fairchildes wanted more influence over how much the children ate, the number of seats and noise level in the dining room, the time in which the children had to eat their food and the amount of social interaction during meals.
Benefits
- The school now has direct control over the nutritional content of the meals served to the staff and pupils.
- The menu reflects a trend towards healthier eating as it was devised with the help of Croydon's Senior Community Dietician.
- the number of children eating school meals at Fairchildes has increased. 250 meals are served on average each day and the school has exceeded its target of 400 paid meals each week.
- The school doubled the price they paid for ingredients from 35 to 70 pence when they took over their school meals service a year ago. This not only gave them better quality ingredients, it also enabled them to purchase fresh produce from local growers and butchers.
- The guaranteed income provided by a large number of free school meals in addition to the increase in paid meals has resulted in £3,500 profit each term after paying the salaries of a cook, an assistant cook, and three kitchen assistants.
Lessons learned during implementation
- It took just three meetings, with the relevant people i.e. catering staff, teaching staff and administration, to know what needed to be done.
- The Head Teacher of another school, who had already adopted the in-house catering strategy and resolved any problems, was contacted to share 'best practice' methods.
- The whole process, with the help provided by outside parties, was deemed very easy to achieve by the staff involved.
- The school is viewed in a new light by parents who see it providing yet another important service for the community. And the parent teacher association now runs an organic box delivery scheme as a consequence of contacts made with local growers, which generates a small surplus for the school.
Future developments
The profits are being re-invested in new kitchen and dining room facilities, which the school is confident, will lead to a further uptake in paid meals.
Further information
Email: admin@fairchildes.croydon.sch.uk
Contact: Geraldine at Fairchildes on 01689 842268
Page published: 11 November 2004