London Borough of Ealing and Harrison staff share school meals windfall

Wednesday 24 October 2007

Ealing Primary schools grow meal numbers and catering staff feel the benefit.

With an almost daily outcry against rising obesity rates in the UK and school meals in apparent terminal decline it’s great to finally hear of a healthy school meal service that is bucking the trend. When the London Borough of Ealing outsourced the catering of its 59 Primary schools to Harrison Catering over 5 years ago, they agreed a series of tough targets to ensure that as many children as possible could benefit from these healthy school meals.

This year, due to an amazing 7% average growth in meal numbers in the Ealing schools, hard working catering staff will each receive just over £130 windfall for their efforts. London Borough of Ealing and Harrison have been able to declare a trading surplus from the provision of the school meal services which will now be shared equally.

David Shailes, School Procurement Manager at the London Borough of Ealing said "everyone at Ealing is extremely happy that we can make these payments to Harrison’s staff. We stipulated this bonus scheme as part of the original contract and have enjoyed a lasting partnership with them over the past 5 years. This is the first time we are able to give something back to the people that really matter."

Gareth Harrison, Director of Group Business for Harrison Catering went on to say ‘Our teams have worked so hard to grow uptake over the last few years, and this bonus payment is very much their ‘just desserts’.

He continued ‘we have increased meal numbers against a backdrop of national decline by serving healthy food in relaxed and appealing environments. Working with the children to understand their specific tastes and by providing quality, localised choice we have been able to maximise the appeal of our menus whilst ensuring that we always meet or exceed government food standards. This bonus payment will specifically reward those who have done the most to make these increases possible.’

The payments will be at the end of this month and are for the academic year ending July 2007. So far this year, sales have continued to grow and it is hoped that further bonus payments will be made to reward those that strive to increase uptake.

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