Three Ways to Improve School Catering

When you improve school catering, you can improve a lot more than just meals on the plate. Good school food helps students develop inside the classroom and out. It gives them the energy to concentrate and do their best in afternoon lesson in particular. How can schools go about improving catering’s positive benefits?

Improve school catering with local produce

One way to improve school catering is to increase the use of local produce. When you use local produce, you help the local community, often provide higher quality ingredients, but do something more important.

It can provide a way to improve children’s education regarding the sourcing and providence of their food. Schools that have their own vegetable patches and grow food on site take this concept to the next level. It’s a great way to teach children about their food when they can watch the process of planting carrots all the way through to the carrots being served on their plate.

It’s a great way to improve catering, but not always practical from a financial point of view for some schools.

Introduce school breakfast service

Something more schools have been able to afford recently, thanks to government initiatives and the work of charities like Magic Breakfast and Family Action, is breakfast school services. The Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi said that 15,000 breakfasts were being served everyday to children in the latest figures.

The extra catering in the morning can really help make a difference to children’s performance throughout the school day. If they are not getting that nutrition at home, a school breakfast can be invaluable. Beyond helping improve classroom performance, more importantly, it just gives them the energy and nutrition they need to develop, grow and be physically active. Magic Breakfast founder, Carmel McConnell said recently:

“Schools tell us that the most important lessons are taught in the morning, so we are delighted that so many more children who may not have access to food at home can now eat a healthy breakfast at school to give them the energy and focus they need to be able to learn.”

Improve school catering with a cashless solution

Another way to improve school catering that in the long-run can help school budgets too, is a cashless catering solution. Cashless catering can encourage more students to use school food services by cutting queues for a start. It can also improve parental involvement in catering. They can track their child’s diet at school, pre-order meals, and rest assured their children are eating a healthy school meal, rather than spending the money they were given for school food on fast food on the way home.

Cashless catering can also encourage more Free School Meal eligible students to make use of the benefit because the stigma of receiving such meals is hidden when a cashless system is used. The school’s kitchen operation can also improve when a cashless catering solution is used, find out more.

Those are just three of the ways to improve school catering schools can explore. It’s a worthwhile endeavour, reaping more benefits than just those seen over lunch time.