Catering Company Changed at Newstead Wood School .
Last academic year was the fall of Newstead Wood School’s former Catering Company Independent catering. To say that the students were excited for an upgrade would be an understatement. One of their students in year 10- Dara said she recalls a time where she found a ‘chunk of uncooked flour’ in a piece of cake she had bought. This was part of a string of events that lead the school to make a change.
The new company, Caterlink began their services at the start of this academic year in early September. This new company brought many changes to the school’s canteen department. One of these changes include the new form of payment in the form of a fob keyring that is very easy to carry around- attachable to Sixth Form and staff ID. This is a step up from the easily lost cards of the former service. However, their transition into their first year of working with Newstead Wood was not as smooth as anticipated.
For the first few days, the students and staff noticed that the portion size of the main meal was very small, much smaller than last year. When questioned, the new service claimed this was because of low stock and storage space that would only last for ‘a couple of days’, but students recall this as lasting for a ‘couple of week’s. Another change was the increased unhealthy food options like fizzy drinks and a wider variety of desserts and snacks than healthier food. This was of course a hit amongst students but quite concerning to staff.
Caterlink was received differently among students. One year 10 student- Isabella, said that they were mostly better than the previous one because of the ‘higher overall quality of food’ however she also claimed that there were many improvements that they could make. These include ‘adding a salad bar’- this is something that Independent Catering had and there was a wide variety of vegetarian options unlike the new menu. They could also have ‘more variety of hot food’ as it is ‘mostly pasta every day’ and ‘keeping prices stagnant’ would also be a great improvement.
Another student- Matilda, mentioned that the new company has ‘improved their snacks at break time in terms of size, variety and quality’ and they have also improved the ‘amount of food that they serve’ in contrast to at the beginning of the year. She believes that they have a lot of potential to serve good and healthy food.
The overall change from Independent Catering to Caterlink has proved to be positive but many believe that there is always room for improvement. Bon Appetit!
Maryam Khalaf
