Islington Tribune - News: Trouble on the menu

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 20 April 2007

Trouble on the menu

School catering deal angers unions

UNION chiefs are already heading for conflict with Cater Link, Islington’s new school dinner provider, just a week after it was announced that the firm were being given the prestigious contract.
Unison, the main Town Hall union, accused Cater Link of lack of consultation with up to 100 dinner staff who will be providing the new service in the autumn.
Branch secretary Jane Doolan is angry that Cater Link has even published its new menu for schools on an education website without liasing with the people who will be preparing and cooking the food.
It follows the decision to dump previous school dinner provider Scolarest after a catalogue of complaints from parents and teachers about the service.
Cater Link will take over the lucrative contract from September for an undisclosed sum and have pledged to include up to 90 per cent fresh produce in their menus.
But Ms Doolan says she has studied the new menus and there is no information about the ingredients or recipes. “On the face of it the menus look fine,” she added. “But there’s no point in providing exciting healthy food if they are, for example, using bulking agents or other unhealthy ingredients. ”
Ms Doolan added that none of her members had been involved in discussions, despite the new service having to be up and running by September 1.
She added: “This was meant to be a brand new dawn in school catering with parents, teachers and dinner staff involved. Yet so far the new firm have not talked to us. But they are going to need the goodwill of our members.”
Another potential source of conflict could be a clause in Cater Link’s contract for “robust training” with “zero tolerance for absence”.
Ms Doolan added: “What does that mean? Are they planning to sack people who become ill?”
The situation is complicated by the fact that many schools will be cooking their own meals on site and a few are planning to stay with Scolarest on an independent basis.
Cater Link was founded in 1993 and provides school meals for more than 200 schools across the country.
Tony McKenna, who founded the company and continues to run it, said:
“We’ve only just been told that we’ve been appointed. We’re still waiting for the official letter to formally proceed.
“I’m obviously keen to follow up with talks with everyone involved.
“As far as the menu is concerned there’s a commitment that 90 per cent of all food will be fresh and the menu will be repeated only once every six weeks. Menus will also vary seasonally.
He added he didn’t know where the “zero tolerance” for absence came from.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: