Catering Update
It has been a challenging year for our catering contract, the hospitality sector has been experiencing food shortages within their supply chain and problems with deliveries, both of which have impacted the school.
Despite this the Catering Teams have been working hard not to disrupt the service to our students.
Tariff Change
However, the combination of these issues combined with inflation, increase in minimum wage and rising energy prices, we have been informed that we will see a 3% increase overall on the tariff prices in the canteen from 22nd February. This increase has been kept to a minimum and has not affected all items sold.
Plastic Bottles
As a Trust, we have a responsibility to reduce our plastic waste where possible and one way of doing this is to remove the plastic bottles from the meal deal offer in the canteen. We have asked Aspens to review the meal deals and provide a tariff which excludes the drink option so that students are not encouraged to purchase a plastic bottle. The school has a number of water refilling stations so we encourage the students to bring in their own bottle which they can refill throughout the day. There will be a reduced number of drinks available to purchase as a singular item if students do not bring their water bottles.
Meal Deals
As highlighted above, the school asked Aspens to review their Meal Deal to ensure we are offering a more sustainable, value for money lunch. By removing the drink from the Meal Deal, we can now offer two price points for the Meal Deal. These include a 2 food item Meal Deal for £2.30 or a 3 food item Meal Deal for £2.50. The attached update outlines what will be included in each of the Meal Deal options and the overall saving made. The marketing will be updated in the canteen to reflect the changes and the Catering Staff will be on hand to advise students on the offer. The Meal Deal price is still within the free school meal allowance, and we hope that students will feel encouraged to use this.
New Week 3 Menu
Aspens have been working with a Development Chef to create new menus. The menus change weekly and work on a three-week cycle, they offer a range of healthy options for students to choose from. Aspens met with the student councils last year and have used their feedback in the menu development. Going forward we are pleased to announce that all vegetarian options on the new menus will be vegan. We hope that students enjoy the new menus on offer and would like to encourage students to provide the Catering Team with feedback.
To try and minimise disruption, these changes will come into effect from 22nd of February .