Get ready for universal free school meals
Creating a positive food culture in school and encouraging children to eat well is at the heart of the exciting School Food Plan initiative which will provide a meal for every Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 child.
But as Lee Vines, Director at PKL, providers of modular kitchens and experts in developing bespoke school catering environments explains, it will be a challenge for many schools and their managers to be ready for September.
From dealing with lack of kitchen space to kitchens with out-of-date equipment, getting staff training up to speed as well as alternative procurement methods to capital spending, Lee takes a step-by-step practical approach to ensuring schools are best prepared to offer a school meals service come September.
Lack of kitchen space
If you don’t currently have a school kitchen, or if the current one is not fit for purpose, you may need to have a new school kitchen built to enable fresh hot food to be produced on site. In these circumstances, there are two main options – build a new kitchen meaning investment in a significant amount of time and money or a modular building. Built to order off-site in around six weeks and then delivered and installed at a school within a matter of hours, a modular building or ‘KitchenPod’ reduces disruption on site and means that schools do not have to give up valuable teaching space to build a new kitchen.
Out of date equipment
Many school kitchens are operating with out of date, unreliable catering equipment that is often not properly maintained and is unlikely to cope well with the increased use that the introduction of the Universal Free School Meals programme will bring.
Capital investment in new equipment is often not financially possible, or desirable, for schools, so contract rental of the complete catering equipment estate can be an ideal solution to upgrade. This also provides the flexibility to change equipment in the kitchen in the future as cooking methods or menu requirements change, without the need for an additional capital purchase.
How will kitchens cope with an increase in school meal uptake?
The introduction of free school meals in many cases is likely to put more pressure on your current kitchen facilities. For those schools with limited space in their current kitchen and dining hall, one idea might be to introduce a modular kitchen elsewhere on the school grounds and convert the existing kitchen into additional dining space.
For schools that do not have the room to expand their kitchen, we have seen some examples where space has been saved elsewhere in the school to allow for the conversion of an existing building into a kitchen. Alternatively, some schools are teaming up with a nearby school who are providing hot meals for them and transporting them in for lunchtimes.
For schools introducing or upgrading a kitchen to cope, some thought should also go into ensuring that you leave enough provision for any future increases in meal take up, once free school meals are being offered.
How can schools fund all this?
Capital funding for new equipment or complete new kitchens may be an issue for many schools looking to introduce new facilities. However, there are a number of options that can make the introduction or upgrade of a kitchen more affordable. These include contract hire or procuring via an operating lease. In particular, a contract hire solution allows a school to fix the operating cost of their kitchen for the foreseeable future, as all equipment, maintenance, parts, labour and preventative maintenance visits and even the building itself can be covered by a fixed monthly fee.
Train the team
Most school cooks are great at what they do, however some may lack confidence in implementing a new range of school meals, or may need to update their cooking skills to tackle new menu options. Organisations such as the Children’s Food Trust or the Food for Life Partnership can offer advice and assistance to both school catering staff and head teachers to help schools improve their food offering. The School Food Plan has also developed a menu for schools who are looking to introduce a hot school meals offer.
Don’t Panic as September Looms!
If you are getting close to September and are still not ready to offer free school meals there are a number of options available.
Hiring a temporary kitchen is one way of immediately introducing a school meals service. A temporary kitchen can be delivered to your site in just a few days from order, and can be designed to suit whatever menu and meal numbers you are serving. In our experience, many temporary kitchens that we have supplied, end up being on site for many months or even years, and can provide an interim solution until you have more of an idea about what size of permanent kitchen you will need, to provide a meals service to pupils.
For smaller requirements, you can also hire in items of catering equipment to set up a temporary facility in an existing building, utilising items such as servery units, oven ranges and combination ovens.
Further Information
If you are planning any changes to your school meal provision in light of the recommendations made in the School Food Plan and would like some more information regarding the options that are available to you in terms of catering infrastructure, please do get in contact with PKL.
For more information, contact PKL on 0845 840 4242, email postbox@pkl.co.uk or visit us on the web at www.schoolkitchens.com.
