A-Z of PKL's 2014: Part 2

Here is Part 2 of my A-Z of this year's highlights at PKL. Part 2 covers letters J-Q, and this section of the alphabet includes a number of exciting events that we've taken part in this year. In this section, it's also clear that it's been a hugely eventful year for the education sector in particular, with new legislation and school initiatives having had a significant impact on that side of our business! If you missed it last week, make sure you catch up on Part 1: A-I here.

J is for Jamie’s Kitchen Garden Project. In May, we installed a Food Technology Kitchen at St Paul’s Primary School in London as part of this Jamie Oliver initiative to get children growing their own food and cooking in schools. It was positioned by the school’s vegetable garden and was designed to include cooking equipment as well as tables and chairs for the children to eat at once they had cooked their meals.

K is for KitchenPods, our permanent modular kitchens. In November, local MP Ed Miliband officially opened the brand new KitchenPod at Kirkby Avenue Primary School in Doncaster. This was a spacious new kitchen with brick slip finish to blend in with existing buildings on site.

Food Technology Kitchen installation at St Paul's Primary and KitchenPod at Kirkby Avenue Primary

L is for the LACA Exhibition which we attended in July. This year, we took along a portable kitchen and positioned it outside the main entrance of the venue for delegates to see in the flesh. Many people hadn’t seen inside a temporary kitchen before, and were surprised at the quality and spaciousness of the cooking environment. We always enjoy the LACA shows, and it was great to see so many familiar faces and meet new people too.

M is for PKL's Macmillan coffee morning. In September, we took part in the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. A huge cake sale in our staff canteen raised £175 for the cause. M is also for the Modular and Portable Building Association (MPBA), which PKL joined as a member in September. I also now sit on the committee as a member of the main MPBA Council.

Temporary kitchen at the LACA Exhibition and Macmillan coffee morning

N is for National School Meals Week. As part of National School Meals Week, we installed a pop-up school kitchen outside the House of Commons on Tuesday 4th November. The kitchen was used to serve sample school lunches to MPs, peers and the public to promote school food and show what modern school meals are really like!

O is for The One Show. Back in March, our KitchenPods were featured on The One Show as a potential solution for schools needing kitchen facilities to offer UIFSM from September. We also installed a Food Cube at the BBC studios, to be featured as an example of a solution for schools suffering lunchtime congestion. The Food Cube was then used by Mary Berry to cook pancakes live on the show!

Pop-up school kitchen outside parliament for NSMW and Food Cube on The One Show

P is for Passmores Academy, where we installed a large, walk-through Food Cube. The school, which is the setting for hit TV show Educating Essex, needed to expand its dining facilities to cope with increasing pupil intake. The Food Cube was positioned by an existing outdoor covered seating area, turning it into an additional space where pupils could purchase and eat food. P is also for poetry. When it comes to poetry, we’ve found that no topic is more inspiring than catering equipment. Read our National Poetry Day rhyme, “Dance of the Catering Equipment”.

Q is for queueing. With increasing numbers of 16-18 year olds staying in education and the School Food Plan leading to increased school meal take-up, many school canteens have been experiencing growing congestion this year. Our Food Cubes have continued to be a popular solution for schools across the country, drastically reducing lunch queue times by easing the pressure on the main canteen and offering a quick “grab and go” service.

That's it for Part 2. Stop by the blog again next week for the final installment of the A-Z of PKL's 2014.

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.

National School Meals Week – PKL Reminisces

This week is National School Meals Week, which got us thinking about our favourite school meals from our own school days. Having taken a very scientific survey of the office, we discovered some rather interesting trends. We fear that some of these answers show our age, but here are some of our responses to the question:

“What was your favourite school meal?”

Spam fritters followed by jam sponge pudding and custard. I also have fond memories of the Christmas pudding which had a real sixpence hidden inside.
Peter Schad, Commercial Director

Fish fingers, chips and peas.
Natalie, IT Support

Veggie lasagne.
Andy, Graphic Designer

Jacket potato with cheese. The flapjack was brilliant too and only cost 12p!
Ed, Business Development

Christmas dinner!
Alastair, CAD Designer

Lasagne!
Will, Financial Controller

Steak pie. At least, I think it was steak…
Ed, IT Manager

Chicken fricassee followed by jam roly poly.
Lynda, Finance

Fish and chips on a Friday, and the Christmas dinners.
Sam, Marketing Manager

I don’t know, but I was a plate monitor so I got to sit at the head of the table!
Sue, Office Manager

Chocolate crunch with pink custard.
Linda, Finance

Chocolate crunch with pink custard on a Friday.
Ian, KitchenPod Sales Manager

At this point, the whole office started enthusiastically reminiscing about chocolate crunch with pink custard. It appears that this was something of a phenomenon in schools across the country. There was quite some debate about how and why the custard was pink, though everyone agreed wholeheartedly that this was the best pudding they’ve ever eaten. Discussion became so animated that we decided to give up and abandon the survey. As we did though, our colleague Mike who looks after our Mid West Catering Equipment division called up. As a parting question, we asked him about his favourite school meal:

Savoury mince with fried bread… and chocolate crunch with pink custard!
Mike, Mid West Catering Equipment Sales

We despair.

As you can probably tell, most of us grew up in a time before nutrition was a top priority in schools, and when discussion turned to our least favourite school meal memories (many involving limp, grey cabbage and thick custard skin), we’re very glad that times have changed!

If you’re busy working to implement the new School Food Plan in your school, you might find it useful to read our 8 Point Plan for Schools which we wrote a few months ago in response to the Plan's announcement. We also outline a number of catering solutions for schools, as well as funding information, on our recently relaunched SchoolKitchens.com website.

We hope you’re all enjoying National School Meals Week, and hope it’s successful in promoting your school meals service. Please do give us a ring if you’d like any advice on solutions to help boost your ability to offer great school meals; we have a range of options including KitchenPods, Food Cubes and our new KitchenFM for Schools product which enables you to contract hire all your catering equipment.

Now, we’re off to look up chocolate crunch and pink custard recipes…