London Borough of Islington - Free school meals
Dated: 24/04/2010
Victor help serve free school meals in Islington
Victor
Manufacturing’s popular serveries and counters have been drafted in to
facilitate Islington Council serve up nutritious balanced free school meals to
all primary school children in the London borough.
The previous
Government’s white paper which aimed to reduce child poverty in the UK demanded that children be fed, well balanced nutritious meals. Islington, which has one of the highest levels
of child poverty in the country, set up a programme to improve children’s
health and well being which included provision of high quality nutritiously
balanced free school meals to all primary school children. The initiative is solely funded by the local
authority and aims to ensure that the children have a well balanced lunch to help
improve their concentration, health and well being in class benefiting their
academic performance.
Islington first piloted the scheme in six schools as a way to evaluate the effect a roll out will have on all the primary schools; the pilot was successful and highlighted strengths, weaknesses and the extra resources needed. Take up of school meals on the piloted schools increased by 20% to 82% overall, and it soon became apparent that Islington was going to need more staff and equipment to make it work across the whole Borough.
Islington ordered combinations of Victor Crown bains marie hot cupboards, and matching Empress refrigerated salad wells for all the primary schools. On some sites they were added to the existing severy, in other premises they formed the only main serving point. Other schools used them as supplementary counters to help with queues because of the increased take up causing very busy lunch periods.
Islington has been using Victor products for many years with some still in use from the early eighties showing their durability and flexibility. The Islington programme had to be delivered quickly and on time. Following initial meetings to clarify - which school needed what, pricing, and choice of units, Victor was given the list of addresses of schools involved, whereupon they surveyed sites and produced details of delivery. It was important to ensure we delivered everything on time. We have had positive feedback from Islington and it’s schools.
Victor Sales Manager Scott Taylor organised site visits to all the 54 schools in two weeks, and: “I produced a presentation pack for each school including specification sheets of the units required. We listened to the requirements of the client and lowered the units specifically for easier access for the reception children,” he says.
The design of the units was a big part of the Islington decision to go with Victor as were the energy saving benefits, low running costs of the equipment and the competitive pricing.
Peter Brewin, Marketing & Communications Manager at Victor takes up the story: “We received orders from the London Borough of Islington for one or two of our Crown bains marie hot cupboards, depending on the size of the school, and matching Empress refrigerated salad wells. “All the mobile servery units have been manufactured to a reduced child friendly height of 800mm and are complete with drop down tray slide, running off 13 amp plugs. Because of the volumes involved economies of scale allowed for exceptionally competitive pricing”, says Brewin.
The Victor range of general purpose bains marie Hot Cupboards, including the Baron and Crown ranges, are available in three different sizes, either static or mobile. The standard products are manufactured in stainless steel, but can be made to special order in a wood effect plastic coated steel finish. With the addition of gantries, tray slides and inserts, these versatile units can form a flexible serving point. Victor General Purpose Hot Cupboards are suitable for use in all commercial catering operations.
Victor’s Empress range of refrigerated salad wells is designed to complement the company’s general purpose Hot Cupboard range, enabling matching modular hot and cold counter runs to be formed.