A-Z of PKL's 2014: Part 1

It's been a great year at PKL, with lots of exciting new projects, partnerships and events. As 2014 draws to a close, I've put together an A-Z review of the year to pick out my highlights. I'll publish a blog post each week from now until the Christmas break to take you through my summary of PKL's 2014. Here's Part 1: A-I.

A is for Ashridge Business Centre. This business centre located in a stunning Grade I listed country house was the site of a 12-week temporary kitchen hire during the summer. The PKL temporary kitchen facility was capable of producing 500 meals per sitting for the centre's staff, visitors and functions while the centre underwent a refurbishment. For more details on this project, read our Ashridge case study.

B is for a fantastic KitchenPod installed at Bentley High Street Primary School in time for the introduction of UIFSM in September. B is also for our brilliant new brochures! These brochures were the result of months of hard work, so when the first copies were printed in May, it was a real cause for celebration. We now have separate brochures for Temporary Kitchens, Catering Equipment, Events, Permanent Solutions and Transworld.

C is for the Children's Food Trust, who we continue to support. With the introduction of UIFSM in September, it's been a busy year for school projects. For example, the Children's Food Trust and LACA put West Berkshire Council in touch with us when three schools needed urgent kitchen solutions - read the West Berkshire schools case study for more details. C is also for customer feedback. We use a Net Promoter Score to measure customer feedback. In the analysis of NPS, a score of above zero is good and above 50 is excellent. I'm delighted to say that our NPS score so far this year is 70, which demonstrates a very high level of customer satisfaction.

Temporary kitchens at Ashridge Business Centre and Dubai Food Carnival

D is for our new partnership with Lowe Refrigeration in Dubai. The partnership has seen our units used at a number of exciting events in Dubai, with case studies including kitchens at Dubai Food Carnival, Blended Music Festival and the Dubai Rugby Sevens.

E is for event health and safety. It might not sound too exciting but there are some very important new health and safety changes being introduced in the event industry next year which will affect all our event clients. The new CDM regulations will mean tougher event safety standards, similar to those seen in the construction sector. Luckily we’ve already been supplying CDM compliant products and services to the event sector for over five years! You can read more in our event health and safety blog post.

Food Cube with attached dining room and walk-in Food Cube

F is for festivals! Our UK Events team supplied kitchens to a number of festivals again this year, for a mix of VIP, staff and public dining. We've also installed lots of Food Cubes at secondary schools across the country, including new bespoke designs such as a Food Cube with attached dining room, and a walk-in Food Cube with additional catering equipment. F is also for the Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI), of which I am now a member!

G is for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, where we supplied the kitchens and servery areas for the main athletes' dining facility, as well as additional casual dining facilities. We supply kitchen and dining facilities to a number of major international sporting events, but it's always extra special when it's one based in the UK. G is also for Gabon, where we supplied a kitchen facility to an oil exploration camp, via our Transworld international division.

Clyde enjoying a drink at Glasgow 2014 and the new Halfway House design

H is for our new Halfway House facility for golf clubs which was launched in August. This is a new member of our Food Cube family of products, and offers a modular food and drink servery with shop and toilets, to be located out on the golf course for players to use during their round. You can read more about it in our Halfway House blog post. H is also for the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA). As well as attending HCA meetings throughout the year, we hosted a meeting for the south west branch back in January.

I is for internal refurbishments! This year, we've undertaken various refurbishment works to our offices including a brand new reception area and board room, a major revamp in the canteen and fantastic new office chairs! Reception has had new paint and flooring, a new reception desk, the addition of a display case for all our awards(!) and a new wall-mounted screen. Elsewhere, the board room has had new paint, carpet, chairs, blinds and pictures, while the canteen has been repainted and had new flooring put down. All very smart.

That's it for Part 1. Keep an eye out for the A-Z Part 2 next week!

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).

Help measure the state of the nation’s school kitchens

Are your school’s kitchen facilities up to the job? Here at PKL, we are helping the Children’s Food Trust to carry out the first national survey of school kitchens across the country.

They are hoping the survey will provide them with information on a number of issues facing school food provision, enabling them to help more schools across the country with their tailored advice.

The Children's Food Trust are gathering information by asking a few short questions covering a number of topics. Are school kitchens big enough and modern enough to cope with feeding hundreds of children every day? Are schools having to allocate valuable budget for repairs and maintenance to ageing kitchens or equipment? Would schools benefit from more information on funding options to replace or improve their kitchen facilities?

To fill out the Children's Food Trust's quick survey to help them gather this vital information, click here and please encourage other school business managers to do the same before Wednesday 17th July.

Read why the Children’s Food Trust wants to see more support for schools to improve kitchens on their blog, and don’t forget they can help if your school is struggling with its kitchen facilities or food provision.

PKL Donates £6000 to the Children's Food Trust

Following the Olympic Games last summer, we went through our catering equipment hire stock and allocated a number of items to be sold off, which were surplus to our ongoing requirements. We’ve made this surplus equipment available at great prices through our Mid West Catering Equipment division, enabling caterers to buy quality, second hand equipment at a fraction of the RRP.

As you may already know, we pledged to make a donation to the Children’s Food Trust for every piece of kit sold, and I handed over our first cheque back in January, which was for a massive £8000.

Following on from this, I’m pleased to announce that I presented donation number two - a cheque for £6000 - to Rob Rees, Chairman of the Children's Food Trust last week.

Rob said: “We’re delighted PKL has supported us with another donation. The Trust’s work in encouraging more children, schools and parents around the country to have a positive experience with food is hugely important. This will help us reach more schools and more children in 2013.”

The Children's Food Trust is a national charity which aims to get children eating better, and its work includes developing healthy school menus and cooking skills with children. I’m very proud that PKL is able to support this charity, as they do a huge amount of work on improving children’s eating habits and, through this, encouraging children to reach their potential.

I look forward to PKL continuing to work with the Children's Food Trust to further support their excellent work.

PKL's Olympic Legacy Raises £8000 for Children's Food Trust

Our contract to supply temporary kitchens and catering equipment to London 2012 resulted in many ex-hire catering equipment items, some of which were used at the athletes' village and other Olympic venues, being made available over the past four months at huge discounts through Mid West Catering, a division of PKL which specialises in selling quality second-hand catering equipment. 

Our commitment to make a donation to the Children’s Food Trust for every used item sold has now resulted in a truly Olympic-sized windfall for the charity, which recently received its first donation from us in the form of a cheque of £8000.

The Children’s Food Trust is a national charity which exists to protect every child’s right to eat better and, so, to do better. Their work includes developing healthy school menus and cooking skills with children. PKL has worked with the Children’s Food Trust on a number of projects recently.

“We are very happy to support the Children’s Food Trust with this donation,” said Lee Vines, our sales and marketing director. “Their work, in encouraging more children, schools and parents around the country to have a positive experience with food is very important. We also hope that many schools benefited by being able to buy this ex-hire equipment at heavily discounted prices. School catering managers can now provide more for their students that they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.”

With the ex-hire equipment selling so well, Lee was able to present a cheque for a total of £8000 to the Children’s Food Trust at their offices in Sheffield. 

Chief Executive, Judy Hargadon, said, "This donation will help us reach even more children - whether through our research programme, our work to improve food in early years settings and in schools, or our work to help even more children learn to cook."