April 2008
Action taken
The St Cyres Comprehensive School decided to change the food and drinks on offer in vending machines and to make nutritious choices more available to pupils in line with healthier school food provision in 2004. Previously, there were littering and safety issues related to empty cans left on the field and this created excess workload for staff to clean them up. The School Food committee took the decision to change the vending machines and replaced the food and drink items gradually with healthier snacks, sandwiches, and drinks that are proven to be popular nowadays.
Mrs Hilary Jones, Acting Senior Deputy Head Teacher of school says, ‘From the outset, there were littering problems and behavioural issues linked to unhealthy food and drinks. We are glad that the gradual transition was successful and it was really important to work with the pupils, not only to consult with them but also to get to know what their taste preferences were.’
Where did you start?
St Cyres Comprehensive School has almost 1,500 pupils split between two sites and is one of the biggest secondary schools in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The Welsh Local Authority has a total of 61 schools and 8 of them are secondary schools. Unlike other schools in the area, St Cyres Comprehensive School runs their own in-house catering service at the two sites and manages four vending machines at the main campus as well.
The school started to look into the behavioural and littering issues related to their vending machines four years ago and made the decision that healthier food and drinks options should be more available to pupils. The school introduced a gradual change since then to phase out the likes of pastries, burgers and sausages sold from the cafeteria and all the carbonated drinks (such as cokes and fizzy water), and artificially sweetened drinks from the vending machines. These were all part of the bigger initiative working towards the strategic direction of the Welsh Assembly Government’s “Appetite for Life”.
What are the vending machines selling offering and who operates them?
There are four vending machines at the main campus, two of them are free of charge chilled drink vending machines supplied and managed by a local vending operator and two Carousel type machines which are lease purchased £480 quarterly by the school and fully managed by the Catering Department. The two chilled drinks machines and one of the Carousel machines are situated in the dining hall allowing access for pupils during break time and the two lunch breaks whereas the other Carousel machine was put in the Sixth Form common room serving the 250 Sixth Form pupils. A range of real fruit juices, plain milk, organic milkshakes and bottled still water are offered by the chilled drinks machines selling from 35p for a carton of milk to 80p for a bottle of fruit juice. The carousel machines provide a selection of drinks, snacks and freshly made sandwiches which are stocked by the Catering Department daily. The contents vary from time to time according to meal deals and sandwiches they make on the day. The milk drinks and bottled still water are at a similar price to those in the chilled vending machines while dried fruit and snack items are offered between 35p to 80p region. Of all the items on offer milk shakes at 80p are the most popular items in the drinks machines because they are chilled and cool, whilst sandwiches in the Carousel machines are very well accepted by pupils because they are quicker and easier to get than from the cafeteria.
There are some extra labour costs concerning loading up and maintaining the two Carousel machines but is incorporated into the catering team’s daily workload since they are doing more sandwiches and loading them up in the machines. The revenue of the vending machines briefly adds up to £6000 a month which has gradually been improved from the start. We also receive 10% revenue from the drinks vending machine.
Are there any school food policies / guidelines in schools?
The School Food committee followed the Welsh Assembly Government’s “Appetite for Life” guidelines. Led by the School Leadership Team, the Healthy Eating Working Party also worked with a range of stakeholders and partners such as the Healthy Schools coordinator, Governors, the Catering Manager, the School Cooks, Food Technology teachers and the School Council to link with the School’s Healthy Living policy. The team put in the plan to phase out unhealthy products in the vending machines which went in line with other healthy eating initiatives in schools. Chips were gradually reduced to only once a week whereas sausages were limited to only being available as part of a meal at lunchtime. Furthermore, the school operated a stay-on-site policy with two separate 30 minutes lunch breaks at both campuses to help ease the pressure on serving time for the 1200 pupils on the main site and to help catering staff to cope with the lunch service at the two school sites. The school has also advocated a local sourcing policy that wherever possible, food will be procured from local suppliers. Many items have been supplied locally since then, such as fruit, vegetables and meat. There were initiatives in schools to sustain the policy such as the staff as role models with their weekly order of organic vegetables delivered to the school from a local grower.
What were the challenges and how did you overcome?
The dining area becomes extremely busy when it comes to lunchtimes and there is usually a big queue of pupils trying to get some food within a relatively short interval so that they can go to do some other activities. To address the problems, members of the School Leadership Team work together with the lunchtime supervisors to oversee the queues and help maintain the flow of pupils. They also work together to clear discarded items in the field. The Healthy Eating Working Party and the School Council worked very closely with the Catering Department and have frequent communications and meetings. With regards to the vending machines, the litter problem has been minimised by providing more rubbish bins and by the removal of cans machines.
However, it was not without challenges. 2 hours per day of extra preparation time was needed in the morning to prepare the food items and to stock up the vending machines and hence there were additional staff costs. The size of the school dining hall limited the flow and sittings for pupils which means that until the new school site is built in 2011 the problems cannot be easily solved.
By phasing out the fizzy drinks and crisps smoothly through a six month period, the school bore the initial impact on sales and gradually picked up the loss with the introduction of healthy items like fruit juices and organic milkshakes. However, there were setbacks in sales of food items in the Sixth Form Common room. The Catering Manager met with the Sixth form pupils to discuss what they wanted and she has adopted a flexible approach to phasing out the unhealthy food items in the vending machine. The pupils got a longer trialling period to test out preferences on dried fruits and sandwiches before the chocolate bars and crisps were banned. The catering staff also ran taster sessions with pupils on healthier products such as raisin cookies during break time and after school to find out the best combination of product mix. For example, they trialled banana chips in the vending machine and got the feedback that the chips were hard and too pricey at 60p per small bag. For the drinks vending machines, the school food team reviewed the sales of larger bottled drinks and changed to sell the ones in smaller bottles as a result of the feedback from the School Council.
What were the outcomes and benefits?
The take-up of school meals has gradually increased since the introduction of the two separated lunchtime period. The Healthy Eating Working Party allowed the vending machines to operate in these two periods and also during break time which helped the take-up of lunch items as well and pupil feedback shows that they appreciated there were more opportunities to buy food. The separate lunchtime periods gave them greater flexibility to organise their eating and activities time during their school day.
The school also started a transition project to help year five pupils of ages 8 and 9 get accustomed to school dinners by letting them get a taste of the school meal, not just one but most of the choices on the menus. This provided some easy steps for pupils to take up school meals when they join the school.
Sustainability
The School Council is actively involved in the new build which the school hopes will come into place by 2011. The new building will be able to accommodate all the staff and pupils, which will save the travelling time between sites. The School Council also played an important role in the consultation to help shaping a sustainable environment for the new school.
Learning Experience
Schools sometimes struggle with the limited space to accommodate pupils during lunchtime and find it difficult to solve issues with long queuing times. Looking into a larger dining space is obviously one way to solve the problem but there are alternative solutions to help with the issue. The experience from St Cryes School shows that the introduction of vending has given a good helping hand to the queuing issue by offering more service points and flexible selling time. More importantly, it was the gradual change and keeping good communication with pupils that has brought success to the take-up of healthy food. Routine consultation with pupils was the best way to find out the taste preferences of different age groups of pupils as well as taste trials to test the acceptance of novel products. Sometimes, what adults perceived as good taste may be too strong a taste for young people, for example, mackerel.
Contact information
Hilary Jones
Acting Senior Deputy Head Teacher
Email: hilaryjones@stcyres.valeofglamorgan.sch.uk
Tel: 02920 713559
