Catering contractors for schools face unique pressures to keep costs down and quality up. It’s a challenge. But there are unique opportunities to balance the two with smarter thinking about waste.

Parents, politicians, nutritionists, and often even pupils themselves can have strong opinions about nutritional content and variety. School management teams that fund the catering want to see healthy meals but at a price that fits – and the budget is under constant pressure to do more with less.

With commodity prices on the rise, there is limited scope to buy ingredients for less. But it is possible to cut purchasing costs by reducing waste. Perhaps the most obvious source of waste is uneaten food on returned plates. But some food is never served and is simply thrown away at the end of the service. Here, with some smart thinking, we can help independent schools to cut expenditure without compromising the quality or the content of food served.

Portion Sizing

Schoolchildren in the 11-18 age range go from child-size to near-adult, with a spread of appetites to match. But it’s common for caterers to offer the same portion sizes to all. The older children may feel unsatisfied, while the younger, smaller ones can be overwhelmed and leave more on their plates to be thrown away. It makes sense to differentiate the portion sizes, so that each child receives an appropriate amount of food. It’s a simple, inexpensive change in approach that could see a lot less waste going into the bins at the end of the service. We often advise school catering departments to set a smaller basic portion size that suits the younger children, giving the flexibility to serve two or even three portions to children higher up the school.

Straight to the bin

Now let’s consider the food that is never served and is simply thrown away. Unlike a typical commercial restaurant, schools have a tightly defined mealtime that lasts only an hour or so before closing. With many choices to offer, demand can be difficult to manage – particularly for hot food. Caterers need to keep an eye on the time; once food is heated, or exposed on the shelf, it cannot be returned if unused. Do you really need to replenish an entire tray if the service will be closing in a few minutes? Perhaps a smaller quantity can be prepared, and the remainder kept chilled for use at another time. This is one more opportunity to save waste that will ultimately lower catering costs.

We also help school caterers to think about the waste created during preparation, with the opportunity to be more creative here. Can we trim vegetables or fruit more frugally to get more from each item. If, for example, these ingredients are apples for a pie, or tomatoes or peppers for a sauce, the appearance of the pieces is not so important allowing the less prime parts to be used. These may not be usable in a salad, but only for cosmetic reasons.

Equally, can we use some types of trimmings in other dishes? There is no end of recipes online with ideas for getting more value from food that is normally thrown away during preparation. Take a look at Love Food Hate Waste and Going Zero Waste as just a couple of readily-available examples. By pointing out resources such as these, and encouraging caterers to take advantage of them, they can draw inspiration to present new and imaginative dishes that reduce waste while also expanding the variety on offer.

Straight to landfill?

And finally, it’s worth thinking about the environmental effects of food waste. We know that millions of tons of avoidable food waste are discarded every year, in countries all around the world, wasting money and adding to the burden on the environment. As we’ve plainly seen in the news recently, today’s schoolchildren are increasingly environmentally aware and prepared to campaign for change. With a demonstrable record of actions and achievements in improving environmental performance, schools can secure the approval of their diners and the respect of peers and parents.

How we drive and support improvement

At CAP we can help schools achieve these goals by working with them to assess their operations, benchmark against appropriate metrics, and set targets. We can also help them establish ways to measure their own performance, not only in terms of expenditure but also pupil satisfaction, through proven initiatives like surveys, tasting panels, and handling electronic feedback. Built right into our Continuous Advancement Programme is a 12-month Action Plan – a path to achieve those goals and not only provide tools to help with waste management but to demonstrate achievements to stakeholders.