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Brooke Primary School joins Cool Food Pro to increase awareness on the food waste reduction in their dining hall.
Brooke Primary School’s catering is independently managed by the school’s principal chef, which, with the support of the staff and the Cool Food Pro Calculator, is working on their environmentally friendly journey by implementing meat-free Mondays and tackling food waste from the dining hall.
What was the challenge?
After the success of their Meat Free Monday campaign, Brooke Primary were keen to continue their sustainability journey. They wanted to continue providing popular food options to their students whilst adhering to their budget, and so decided to tackle food waste next.
Taking action
Joining CFP, allowed the support they needed, starting with the delivery of an initial Food Waste Audit by Karen Igho, the Health and Wellbeing Lead at PECT, where over the course of three days, the wasted food from the kitchen and dining hall was sorted and weighed. This allowed for them to understand the highest amount of food being wasted was coming from the dining hall, meaning the students were not finishing their dishes. Following the conclusions and recommendations supplied by the auditor, Brooke Primary was able to focus on applying changes on their servery, to tackle this wastage.
Simply changing the way menus are communicated to children, may encourage them to eat more, as a result of greater awareness of the food being served to them.
The Cool Food Pro calculator allowed us to gather the environmental savings surrounding this wastage reduction. Brooke Primary was able to reduce their food waste by approximately 17% since the audit, which resulted in approximately 7 kg of CO2e saved, the equivalent to 32 km travelled by car.
What happened next?
Brooke Primary has nominated a staff member to be the food waste reduction lead, which will be responsible for carrying out monthly food waste weigh-ins to monitor the results of all the changes being made throughout the school. The CFP calculator will capture the savings that will then allow the school to shoutout about the teamwork surrounding the improvement of the school’s sustainability.
We heard from Brooke Primary school’s headteacher, Alex Griffiths, “The children were really excited about the use of the tool to track their carbon savings equivalent. When we shared the results of our audit and weigh-ins in their assembly, they were really excited to see the equivalent carbon saving travel distances that we had managed to make each time. It was really easy to use, and the results being produced for you in graph form, as a poster and something that can be shared with children and staff made it really impactful. We have also adapted our food menu using the resources available to offer our children lunches that they will all enjoy and hopefully generate less waste!”
Brooke Primary Academy has shared a recipe they use in their canteen. To see, click in the following link: https://coolfoodpro.net/en/get-involved/recipes/victoria-sponge-for-24-1
The children were really excited about the use of the tool to track their carbon savings equivalent. When we shared the results of our audit and weigh-ins in their assembly, they were really excited to see the equivalent carbon saving travel distances that we had managed to make each time. It was really easy to use, and the results being produced for you in graph form, as a poster and something that can be shared with children and staff made it really impactful. We have also adapted our food menu using the resources available to offer our children lunches that they will all enjoy and hopefully generate less waste!”
More case studies
Littleport Community Primary School joins Cool Food Pro to reduce food waste in their dining hall.
Littleport Community Primary’s menus are managed by Norse Catering who are dedicated to reducing plate waste through actions applied to mains and sides. All while continuing to provide a great lunchtime service to approximately 200 students a day
Norse Catering go organic and reduce meat for more climate friendly meals
Norse Catering, a Norfolk and Suffolk based caterers are enhancing their meal offer by incorporating more climate friendly practices. Joining the Cool Food Pro project as a pilot site has enabled them to adopt additional sustainable working practices to further reduce their carbon impact.
Healthy, nutritious meals have always been a priority for Norse. They use high quality ingredients, much of which is also locally sourced, to provide seasonal and nutritionally balanced meals in schools, colleges, care homes and businesses. They currently hold the Soil Association Food for Life Served Here Silver award for their use of ethical ingredients that support the local economy and are better for health, nature and our climate.
Caterlink reduce food waste in school kitchens
Education catering specialists, Caterlink are working with one of their primary school sites as a pilot in Cambridgeshire to reduce the amount of food left over at the counter after lunch time service.
By looking at baseline waste values at Isle of Ely Primary School, they have set out key areas to work on that will result in less food going in the bin, with a view to roll this out across the business.
