Kitchens, Forklifts and Cranes: Some recent school installations

We popped down to London last week to check on the progress of two temporary school kitchen installations we were undertaking. 

Our first port of call was St Paul’s School, where our team were busy installing a large temporary kitchen complex. This facility comprises a number of our temporary units linked together, all joined to a tented dining room which the school had also hired for the duration of the project. We were also installing a range of servery equipment in the dining area, from which food will be served to pupils.



We’ve worked with the supplier of the tented dining room many times before, so the teams on site worked together to successfully complete the installation. The facility will be on site for over 12 months while the existing school kitchen undergoes major refurbishment works.

We then headed across town to Eaton House The Manor School, where a crane was being used to lift our temporary kitchen units over the buildings into the area set aside for the facility, as access was very limited. They were then moved into position using forklifts.



As with St Paul’s School, this kitchen facility will also be used while the school’s existing kitchen is refurbished. We managed to get some great photos taken from the top of the crane too, capturing the fantastic view across London!

Visit the temporary kitchens section of our website for more information on our temporary kitchen options for refurbishments.  

Recent School Projects

We've installed several temporary and permanent catering facilities in schools in the last few weeks, with many schools preparing for September already. Here's a selection of photos from some school projects we've recently completed.

Cavendish Primary School in Manchester has had a temporary kitchen and dining facility installed for 18 months while their old facilities undergo a refurbishment. The large kitchen facility has areas for preparation, production, dry and cold storage, and dishwashing, as well as a dining hall, toilets and staff room.



We've also recently installed a Food Cube at Fairfield High School for Girls in Manchester. The school wanted to offer a catering facility with a more contemporary high street feel to particularly appeal to older pupils. The Cube has helped reduce queue times in the main dining hall and has taken pressure off the catering staff. It has also proven to be popular with users of the nearby sports hall, and the Cube is generating additional profits outside of normal school hours by catering for people using the sports facilities.



The same contract caterer also ordered another identical Food Cube for Tewkesbury School (above). They have been so pleased with the popularity and success of these first two Cubes, that they've just placed an order for a third!

PKL at National School Meals Week 2014

As part of National School Meals Week, we installed a PKL temporary kitchen outside the House of Commons last Tuesday to feed school lunches to MPs, peers and members of the public.

Some of the dishes served may have come as a surprise to anyone unaware of recent changes to school food – the menu included options such as organic beef Jamaican pie with mash, Valencia salmon paella, sweet potato curry with roti bread, and Arabian lamb and rice. These are all meals which are on the menu at local schools, so they represented a real example of modern school food.

The temporary kitchen was delivered at the crack of dawn and installed in Old Palace Yard. Local school chefs then used the kitchen to cook and serve lunch from 12-2pm. The kitchen drew quite a crowd, with lots of people coming to sample the food.

MPs who stopped by to taste the school lunches included David Laws, Sharon Hodgson, Stephen Mosley and Edward Davey among others. The event was also attended by Linda Creegan, CEO of the Children’s Food Trust, and Myles Bremner, Director of the School Food Plan.

By 4.30pm the kitchen was all packed up and loaded back onto our lorry ready to head back to PKL HQ. With over 25 years’ experience supplying temporary kitchens, permanent KitchenPods and Food Cubes to the education sector, we’ve seen first-hand how school food has changed in recent years and we’re proud to have been part of this exciting event which has helped showcase just how far school food has come.

Not ready for UIFSM in September? Don’t panic!

There are various reasons why some schools might not be ready to hit the ground running with Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) in September.

It could be that you’re struggling with budgets, logistics, the timeframe or are just unsure where to start. I know that hold-ups in some schools are also being caused by factors such as building work timescales, uncertainty over the best solution, or the desire to see exactly how school meal take-up is affected in September before making a final decision.

If you’re struggling with the introduction of UIFSM and implementing the School Food Plan, there are a number of sources of help, advice and guidance out there which you might find useful. Here are my top picks:

Department of Education – This document from the Department of Education offers official advice and information on the introduction of Universal Infant Free School Meals.

The School Food Plan – If you haven’t read it yet, this is where you can download and read the School Food Plan it its entirety. This explains all the new school food guidelines, ideas on implementing them, and the reasoning behind the changes. Or, if you just want a quick overview, there’s also a great 5-minute summary too!

UIFSM Toolkit – This is a great step-by-step guide to implementing UIFSM, and helps guide you through the process with practical advice and suggestions.

What Works Well – Here you can watch videos, read real-life case studies and get tips on tried and tested ideas to implement a successful school food scheme.

Children’s Food Trust – The Children’s Food Trust is running a free advice service to help schools with any questions or problems that might arise when sorting out their school meals service. They have a helpline that you can call and they’ll help answer your questions and point you towards further support.

Small Schools Taskforce – The School Food Plan has put this taskforce together specifically to help small or rural schools who might face additional challenges when implementing UIFSM and the School Food Plan. Incidentally, my colleague Ed Lyons and I are both members of this taskforce, as PKL can offer expertise in this area!

UIFSM FAQs – The Children’s Food Trust has put together a really useful set of FAQs which might help answer some of your questions about UIFSM.

Whatever the reason, if your school isn’t going to be ready to provide UIFSM in September, help is also on hand in the form of our temporary kitchens and catering equipment hire, which can provide an excellent solution until your permanent facilities are in place.

Hiring a temporary kitchen is a quick and easy way to provide a school meals service instantly, and we’ve had clients who’ve had temporary kitchens at their schools from a few days up to several years! Our temporary kitchens can be designed specifically to suit your menu and the number of meals you’ll be serving, so they represent a fast, sensible solution which won’t require you to compromise on your menu, food quality or the kitchen environment itself.

For smaller requirements, you can also hire items of catering equipment to enable you to set up a temporary kitchen facility in an existing building, utilising items such as oven ranges, combination ovens and servery units.

Alternatively, if you already have a school kitchen but are struggling with old or unsuitable catering equipment, our KitchenFM for Schools option enables schools to contract hire their entire catering equipment estate from us for a fixed monthly fee, meaning the equipment is our responsibility to maintain, and you can swap items in or out as your menu changes.

And of course, if you’re still looking for a permanent kitchen option, our permanent modular KitchenPods are a hugely popular option for schools as they can be ready in a matter of weeks and offer flexible procurement options for where budgets are tricky.

I do hope this blog post has helped give you some ideas if you were worried about getting your school ready in time for September – please do get in touch with us to see if our school kitchen solutions can help make your transition to UIFSM easier.

Catering Infrastructure Solutions for Universal Infant Free School Meals

At the moment, I’m receiving lots of enquiries from schools needing help with getting their kitchen facilities ready to meet the requirements of the School Food Plan and Universal Infant Free School Meals in September. 

The two main obstacles they’re up against tend to be time and funding, which are the areas in which our solutions can really help some schools. We offer a number of flexible procurement options on all our school facilities, including capital purchase, contract rental and lease. This enables schools with limited funding to help spread the cost and avoid the need for up-front capital expenditure. Our school solutions can also be installed and ready to use within a matter of weeks, keeping the whole process straightforward and stress-free.

Here’s a brief outline of our key options for schools wanting to prepare for September:

KitchenPods

PKL KitchenPods are ideal for schools with no existing kitchen,
or for schools who need to extend their current kitchen building.

Many of my clients found the cost of kitchen building works prohibitive, and approached us looking for a solution better suited to their funding availability. Our KitchenPods are permanent modular kitchen buildings, but offer the ability to be moved and relocated if the school’s needs change over time. This capability offers another advantage in that unlike a traditional building, KitchenPods are also able to be offered on a rental or lease basis. For schools unable to fund an up-front capital purchase, these monthly payment options can be much easier for schools to manage, and can help make it easier for the caterers or other stakeholders to contribute to the payments (an increasingly popular way of funding new facilities!).

PKL KitchenPods are modular kitchens which are built and kitted out off-site in as little as 6 weeks from order, then installed in a matter of days. These are a very flexible solution with a number of sizes available, ranging from single units to large open-plan spaces. KitchenPods also offer a huge range of exterior finishes, enabling them to complement existing buildings on site. Schools often opt to have our KitchenPods installed on a weekend or during school holidays, to completely avoid any disruption on site.

KitchenFM for Schools

Our KitchenFM for Schools option is brilliant for schools
requiring new catering equipment on a tight budget.

For schools who have a kitchen but have outdated or inadequate catering equipment, KitchenFM for Schools, which we developed with support from the Children’s Food Trust, is an ideal solution. For a fixed monthly fee, PKL will supply all the catering equipment and maintain it, with engineers only a phone call away. This is therefore a completely hassle-free option, and we can even buy back your existing equipment to include in the plan, and swap different equipment in and out if your menu or school meal take-up changes.

I know that many schools will not have the capital in place to purchase all new catering equipment, so KitchenFM for Schools is an excellent solution – contract rental of the catering estate means there is no up-front capital needed, and the responsibility for maintaining and looking after the equipment remains with PKL, so there will never be any nasty financial surprises!

Temporary Kitchens

PKL temporary kitchens can offer high quality
interim kitchen facilities to schools who need more time!

I know that some schools would prefer to see exactly how their school meal take-up is affected by the changes in September, before deciding on the best course of action for their kitchen facilities. Other schools have opted for extensive building works which won’t be ready in time for September or will disrupt existing kitchen facilities while they’re taking place. For schools in these types of situation who require interim catering facilities, PKL temporary kitchens are an ideal solution.

As the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens, we are able to hire a whole range of kitchen facilities to meet your exact requirements and buy you time to get your permanent kitchen in place. With hires able to last from a few weeks to several years, temporary kitchens provide an easy and flexible option.

Further Information

If you’d like more information on any of these options, or if you’d like to discuss your school’s requirements with us, please visit www.schoolkitchens.com or give us a ring and ask to speak to a member of the Permanent Kitchens Team (myself, Ian or Ed).

An Ode to School Kitchens

Today is National Poetry Day so, never ones to shy away from a good limerick (or eleven...), here is a poem we have written about school kitchens. Enjoy!

An Ode to School Kitchens

With the School Food Plan launched recently,
We hope schools will embrace it and see
The importance of food
And how it lifts a child’s mood.
Our advice we can offer for free.

If your current school kitchen is bad
And your poor cook is feeling quite sad,
Cheer up, come along
Click SchoolKitchens.com -
Our ideas are totally rad!

With school meals hitting the news
As they’ll be offered free up to Year 2s,
Prepare your facilities
And your school meal abilities
With our school options – click here to choose!

A modular-built KitchenPod,
Installed in a jiffy by our squad,
Is a proper kitchen building
Which your cook can show their skills in -
You could expand your school menu with… cod?

If your equipment is haunted by ghouls,
You need KitchenFM for Schools!
Hire equipment hassle-free
For a fixed monthly fee
And your cook will have all the right tools.

A Food Cube is ideal to use
If your lunchtimes are spoiled by queues.
Install one outside,
Watch your revenues rise -
You really have nothing to lose!

With Food Tech from 2014
Compulsory up to Key Stage 3,
Learning institutions
May need new solutions
And ours are the best that we’ve seen!

If you need more Food Tech teaching space
Our modular options are ace.
With a number of features,
They’re sure to please teachers,
As a flexible food learning place.

If you need some funding advice,
We’ve listed some sources (coz we’re nice!).
You can apply for the money
Without cost causing worry
So you will not need to think twice.

For a refurb or emergency hire,
Our temporary kitchens will inspire.
They’ll keep your meals running
(Our facilities are stunning!)
During building works, after flooding or fire.

And so ends our school kitchens verse -
We don’t think it could be any worse!
Though poetry’s not our thing,
Kitchens are, so give us a ring -
We’d very much like to converse! About kitchens. Really, call us. We'd love to chat.

The End.

Introducing SchoolKitchens.com

Today, we have launched SchoolKitchens.com, our new-look school kitchens website. With the announcement of the School Food Plan over the summer, we decided to pull all our information for schools into one central resource, to make it as easy as possible for schools and local authorities to access details of all the different school catering products we offer.

SchoolKitchens.com is designed to complement our 8 Point Plan for Schools which we created in response to the School Food Plan, and outlines our options for school kitchen facilities, food kiosks and teaching kitchens.

The website includes details of our KitchenPods, FoodCubes, KitchenFM for Schools, Food Technology Kitchens and Temporary Kitchen & Dining Facilities. It also features a new interactive funding map, which details various sources of funding available to help schools procure our products.

As well as product information and funding options, the new website gives you the opportunity to read PKL case studies from the education sector, showing how our products have made a difference to schools across the country.

SchoolKitchens.com also ties in with the launch of our new KitchenFM for Schools product, whereby schools can contract hire all their catering equipment from us, giving them a low, fixed monthly cost with no large capital outlay. With all service and maintenance included in the package, plus the opportunity to change the equipment if the school menu changes, it provides a low risk option with no capital expenditure. What’s more, the Children’s Food Trust are on board with KitchenFM for Schools, and for every contract undertaken, we will make a donation to support their valuable work.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the new website – take a look and let me know what you think!

SchoolKitchens.com - Kitchen and Catering Equipment Solutions for the Education Sector

PKL Group has launched schoolkitchens.com a website to promote kitchens and catering equipment solutions for the education sector. The site provides information for schools, colleges and universities who have a requirement for, or are considering a new build or refurbishment kitchen project.

PKL offers a wide range of solutions to the education sector including temporary kitchens for school kitchen refurbishment, KitchenPods (new school kitchens for primary schools), permanent modular kitchens and a wide range of catering equipment solutions for existing school kitchen facilities.

Schoolkitchens.com also provides a wide range of information to schools and local authorities with regards to funding initiatives available to them for development of school dining facilities, who to contact for more information and relevant organisations who able to provide more information about school kitchens and school catering issues.