Nightingale Infant School Makes The Grade With Nutritionally Balanced Meals

Nightingale Infant School in Derby had already made a dramatic improvement to its lunchtime service by introducing healthier lunches and a varied menu for its 165 pupils, as well as the 250 pupils at the affiliated junior school that shares the canteen facilities.

However in the wake of the Government’s announcement on school meals, Janet Toombs, head teacher of Nightingale Infant School who is responsible for the canteen, was faced with the quandary of how to comply with the stringent nutrient standards that come into force in 2008.

Knowing with almost pinpoint accuracy the nutritional content of lunches to meet the 14 nutrient standards set down by the Government is the enormous task now facing primary schools, and one that has been made even greater at Nightingale Infant School where most of the recipes are served only once per half term.

For Janet, the task has been made much easier by using Fretwell-Downing Hospitality’s Saffron Nutrition web service, a system specifically devised for schools to nutritionally analyse the meals they serve.

Three years ago the heads of both Nightingale Infant and Junior schools decided to opt out of Local Authority control for catering. With Janet assuming responsibility for the canteen, she devised all the menus herself and made sweeping changes to the type of meals being provided. The seven-strong catering team now serves up to 1250 meals each week, through menus that change daily and which include a main meal with a vegetarian option and dessert, together with free access to fresh fruit and salad bars.

With 66% of the pupils who are aged 4-7, and around 50% of children from the affiliated junior school receiving free meals, the school is only too aware how important it is to provide a nutritionally balanced lunchtime meal.

However knowing whether the meals are completely nutritionally balanced and compliant with the impending standards, such as calcium levels being no less than 40% of the reference nutrient intake, was going to be an uphill challenge for the school particularly bearing in mind that most catering staff are not trained as nutritional experts.

With help from the school’s catering supplier, ESPO (the Eastern Shire Purchasing Organisation) the Saffron Nutrition service – which produces a report based on analysing all the ingredients and plate servings for each menu – was introduced.

All the ingredients and quantities used in each of the recipes, the plate servings including the vegetables served with the main meal, drinks, and data on the few ready-prepared products that are bought in, were entered into the analysis program.

One of the most challenging aspects to the data inputting was assigning the portions of self-service items from the salad or fruit bars. This was overcome by averaging out how much each pupil would normally put on their plate, such as a quarter of an apple or a third of a banana.

The subsequent analysis revealed that only in three areas did the menus marginally fail to meet the targets. For instance, calorie and carbohydrate intakes were slightly on the low side, by only 0.2% and 0.5% respectively.

To rectify this, Janet had to adjust the menus to ensure each recipe contained the correct ingredients.

As Janet explains: “In a way the service has been the answer to all our prayers. Initially it can seem a laborious task inputting all the recipe data, especially when we have provided such a complex number of dishes. ”However once that hurdle is overcome, the programme is an excellent tool that provides us with the confidence that our school meals are going to meet the legislation.”

For Nightingale Infant school, subsequent terms will become easier as many of the menus will already be in the system, and menu changes can be entered straightforwardly into the database. Janet is also looking at simplifying the menus slightly to make future inputting easier.

Another benefit from using Saffron Nutrition is the greater financial accountability and control that the school now has on the catering side.

“Before, we would look at our costs retrospectively when invoices had come in from suppliers, but with this system we can now see at a glance how much each particular dish or menu is costing us for the term ahead,” Janet explains.

“For example, we have had instances where we have only been spending 67p per head, say on a salad day, when our target is £1.35 per head, and yet on another day when we’re serving a roast our costs rise to £1.87 per head. This allows us to plan much more effectively by adjusting menus so that we can keep within budget.”
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