Background Information:
Fatfield Primary School in the Washington area of Sunderland caters for 234 pupils (aged 4-11 years). The school was rebuilt in 1999 however; a full production kitchen area was not incorporated into the new design. School meals provided by Local Authority Caterers were prepared offsite and transported to the school. The take up for paid school meals was low at 38%
The school is an average size primary, serving an area with a broad socio-economic mix taking children from the village of Fatfield and the surrounding area. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is below average.
Why did the school want to make changes to the school meal provision?
Kitchen Area: The school did not have a full production kitchen and therefore, could not prepare food fresh on site. Instead food was delivered to the kitchen via the back door, at approximately 11:15am. It was stored in the heated serving cabinets that were ideally located directly under the serving hatch, until lunchtime. During service the food would be replenished from these cabinets with minimal interruption to the queue.
Pots and pans requiring washing up were stored on a trolley next to the servery and were wheeled across after service. One of the key constraints within the kitchen was the existing size and space of the facility, which gave little flexibility for the placement of the equipment
Servery Area:
At the servery pupils were taking a considerable amount of time to choose their meal option. This delayed the service time and impacted on queue length.
Food Waste Management:
The kitchen operation was observed on a ‘typical’ day where the meal choices were Roast Chicken or Vegetarian Chilli. At the end of service there were 3 portions of Roast Chicken left and over 20 portions of Vegetarian Chilli remaining.
On this day 133 meals were served and whilst there was a sufficient quantity of each meal produced, this was only achieved by producing 20% more meals than pupils were going to consume.
Project Team:
- Headteacher
- Bursar
- Sunderland City Council Representative
- Sunderland City Council Kitchen Expert
- Avail consultant
- School Food Trust Consultant
What Improvements were made to the school meals service?
Kitchen Area:
A full production kitchen was installed complete with a combi oven to enable the catering team to provide quicker and therefore healthier food. Vegetables could also be steamed in the combi-oven rather then boiled on the hob, which also improved the nutritional content of the food.
The Kitchen Assistants’ were not trained to use the new equipment. A Kitchen Manager was brought in from another school to implement the new service and provide staff training, with a view to the school employing a permanent Manager in the coming months. The new kitchen complete with the combi oven can be viewed below
A new dish washing area was installed to enable dirty pots and pans to be stored next to the sink area, rather than being wheeled across after servery. This enabled staff to replenish crockery and cutlery during the service.
Servery Area:
At Fatfield, menus were also displayed next to the queuing area to promote the food on offer. Pupils were asked to make their choice of meal when they get to the servery. Following the installation of the full production kitchen an additional Kitchen Assistant was placed at the servery area to speed up the flow.
Food Promotion:
All the improvements were tested by running a weeklong free school meal trial to all pupils. This enabled the school to test the new service at full capacity.The school also hosted a parent launch event to promote the new school food service.
What were the benefits to the school?
The results indicate that producing fresh food on site and successful promotion can have a positive impact on the number of meals consumed and the quality of the food produced.
New Kitchen Area, Food Promotion and Food Wastage
The installation of the new kitchen coupled with the free school meal trial and parents launch event, significantly increased the take up of paid school meals.
In the period from September 2008 until the free school meal trial in March 2009, the average take up of paid meals was 38%. During the free school meal trial take up increased to 95%. Following the weeks after the trial take up has remained at around 64%.
Before the kitchen was installed the number of pupils throwing away food ranged from between 25% – 67%. The main reasons cited were that the food was too cold or that it did not taste good. Since the installation of the new kitchen the level of food wastage has reduced from between 2% – 13%
Servery Area:
By introducing a 3rd staff member at the servery the average service time per pupil, has reduced from 24 seconds to 17 seconds. The diagram illustrates the decreased service time below.
| Date | Average time per pupil at the servery | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 15th January 2009 | 24 seconds | Before kitchen was installed and with two kitchen assistants serving |
| 17th March 2009 | 22 seconds | After kitchen installed, with three kitchen staff serving but during a free meal trial |
| 3rd April 2009 | 17 seconds | After kitchen installed, with three kitchen staff serving during a typical day. |
The school made the following comments about the improvement work:
“The children have expressed very positive views about the choice and portion sizes and the number of meals taken since the free meal trial has gone up by approximately 200 meals per week. The number of staff taking a meal has also increased considerably, again due to the quality and good value of the food served.”
“The refurbishment of the school kitchen means that we now have our meals cooked on the premises. The food which is being produced is fresh, colourful and inviting” Headteacher at Fatfield Primary School
Future Recommendations:
- The school will continues to measure the take up of school meals and the level of wasted food served to pupils.
- Pupils select their meals in registration to reduce the amount of production waste and to reduce serving cycle times.
Contact Details:
If you would like further information please feel free to contact the School Food Trust on 0800 089 5001 or alternatively please email enquiries to info@childrensfoodtrust.org.uk
