ISS has been re-awarded the contract to provide school lunches to fifty schools in the London Borough of Redbridge, for a further six years.
The caterers have been working with Redbridge Council to develop a high quality lunch service for schools in the borough since 2009. The new agreement will commence on 1 August 2016 and will continue to 31 July 2022.
Over the past seven years, ISS and Redbridge Council have evolved the school meals service into one which is healthy, sustainable, popular and affordable. During this period, school meal uptake has increased from 36% to 69%, and continues to rise; the ISS team in Redbridge currently provide around 3,340,800 school meals every year.
The service has been accredited with the Soil Association’s Food for Life Silver Catering Mark, meaning that the food on the menus is freshly prepared from scratch each day using a selection of sustainable and locally sourced ingredients.
As well as achieving the Silver Food for Life Catering Mark in 2010, ISS has introduced a number of initiatives over the past six years to continue to evolve the school meals service. These include a gardening grants programme and associated gardening training events for every school; Food Education Event Days (FEEDs); cooking clubs for children and parents; a weeklong visit from charity Focus on Food’s Cooking Bus; the introduction of an online payments system; new dining room décor and signage in schools which have requested it and an extensive calendar of special lunches and themed day celebrations.
For just two pounds per day, pupils in Redbridge can choose from either two or three main meal choices (which include both meat and vegetarian options), two vegetable accompaniments and a choice of a hot dessert, piece of fresh fruit or organic yoghurt. Diners also have full and unlimited access to salad bars, which contain a variety of fresh vegetables.
The school menus include a selection of organic products, including bread, yoghurts and milk, as well as a range of locally sourced, seasonal produce. In addition, all of the eggs are free range and all of the meat, including the halal provision in schools which have requested it, is Farm Assured/Red Tractor certified.
To continue to enhance and evolve the school lunch service in Redbridge, ISS has invested in a ten person strong local team which includes a Food Ambassador, whose role it is to provide pupils, parents and teachers with fun and interactive learning sessions centred around food; from where it comes from to how to cook it!
Councillor Elaine Norman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said, “Primary school meals have cost £2 since 2012 and when we renewed this contract we were determined to not only ensure the best quality but also the best value for money.
“We want to make sure that families of different incomes have the opportunity to afford a quality school meal and we are very pleased to announce this price freeze. By the end of this contract the cost of primary school meals in Redbridge would have stayed at £2 for 10 years. Of course those children that are eligible for free school meals will continue to get their meals for free.
“We know how important it is that children have the opportunity to have good nutritious meal at lunch time. It forms part of a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, good habits that children can take forward into adulthood.”
Mark Davies, Managing Director, ISS Education, commented, “ISS are delighted to have been re-awarded the contract to deliver school lunches to the primary schools in Redbridge.
'We are committed to continually improving and evolving the service into the future, with the vision of creating excellent mealtime experiences for the children in the borough, as well as providing delicious food.
'Our local team is ambitious and has big plans for the new contract, which will be introduced for the new term in September. It’s a very exciting time for school lunches in Redbridge and we thank the schools and the borough for choosing us as their school lunch providers.”