Agenda item

To receive an introductory report on Corporate Catering and its role in Net Zero.

The Group Catering Manager provided an update on Corporate Catering to the Committee. The objectives were summarised to be focused on how best to support sustainability and supporting climate change within the catering offered within schools. At the time of the meeting there were 55 schools and 5 nurseries that the Council cater for, this accounted for 3,000 meals of children not on free school meals and 4,000 for those on free school meals. There were 254 caterers employed and 50 of the catered schools achieved a 5 star rating. The team worked to promote more eco-friendly measures for food waste such as replacing the refuse bags with eco-friendly ones. Some of schemes implemented including the introduction of school gardens where the pupils learn about growing fresh produce that were to be used in food provided to the children.

The Group Catering Manager summarised some of the challenges that were being faced. These being that not all schools had full recycling facilities which included a number of schools not having food waste disposal on site. There were concerns with the cost of food increasing and its impact to provide sustainable meals. There was also challenges with determining the levels of carbon emissions being emitted and whether the work that was currently being done had an impact on this because the potential figures would be based on the whole school.

Following the presentation, members had the following discussions and raised the following questions.

Were the challenges faced by the Corporate Catering team listed by priority?

The challenges were not put to the Committee in priority. However, officers said that the complications faced by the increasing food prices was a particular concern. The Director: Communities, Customer and Commercial Services explained that this concern was of particular importance because of providing a nutritional meal that amounted to 96pence per head. Another particular concern was gauging the carbon emission figures because it was hard to determine the impact from the kitchens as figures are based on the whole school.

Was there schools that left the service or asked to be a part of it?

There were three schools that previously left the service that had approached the Corporate Catering Team to re-join them.

Was there any difference in service/provision to the team if they were based in a Council maintained school or privately ran school like an Academy Trust maintained school?

For Council maintained schools it was said that elements of the service would differ such as being able to get equipment repaired in a timely manner. When working with schools that were not maintained by the Council it was said that the team would offer a 3-5 year plan that was bespoke to the school.

How many children brought packed lunches and were the reasons as to why known?

78% of free-school meal eligible children had school meals. The children that had packed lunches were either the ‘fussy eaters’ or wanted to play outside faster.

How did the catering team work with children that had Special Educational Needs (SEN)?

The Group Catering Manager explained that when working with SEN children, there was work with the parents to build trust. This was done in order to get children to engage with the food and understand whether the food required anything specific such as being processed further to prevent choking.

Members discussed the work done by the Catering team and was impressed with the work and the achievements that they have achieved. Members expressed interest in forming a working group to look further at what the service can be done to improve their environmental impact further than what they already do. It was discussed that a site visit to one of the schools could be done along with exploring other areas of best practice that could be implemented not just in school catering but in other catering provisions.

RESOLVED – the contents of the report and the planned review into Corporate Catering and how it support the Council’s net zero ambitions be noted.