Eatz4u case study

Richard Wainwright, Group Catering Manager of secondary schools at Solihull Catering Services, has experienced first hand the benefits of working with the Unilever Food Solutions Education Team, and was keen to talk about how the programme has worked during its trial at ten secondary schools in the Solihull local authority.
 

Q: How have the trials been going within the Solihull schools?
A: The trials of eatz4u have been going well. Both students and staff have welcomed the new recipes, branding and nutritional information that Unilever has provided us with, and the feedback has been really positive so far.

Q: What has been the most beneficial part of the eatz4u programme?
A: The eatz4u programme has helped get the children excited and better informed about food, as well as taking pressure off school staff who are working hard to meet the new nutrient based standards.* The Unilever team has helped to do this by providing colourful and informative signage for the school dining rooms, developing tasty recipes that meet the new standards, and most importantly, by educating the school cooks and children on the new foods being introduced. The Chefmanship Programme is a great part of the initiative, which involved two chef coaches from the Unilever Food Solutions Culinary Team visiting all ten of our schools to teach the catering staff how to cook the eatz4u recipes, give advice on portion control and wastage and offer suggestions for getting the most out of each meal. They also gave the children samples of the food, which they loved!

Q: How confident are you that the schools will be ready by September?
A: We are more or less there. There are 14 nutients that need to be met across the menu so we need to get the right balance of all 14 whilst still giving the students a good variety, eatz4u has definitely helped us in our challenge to meet the new standards, with a bank of recipes now fully developed thanks to the Unilever team.

Q: Do you feel that the eatz4u initiative will provide long-term support to schools after it has been rolled out?
A: I genuinely feel that the team at Unilever will be there for us at any stage of the process, whenever we need their assistance. It has been very beneficial working with a large manufacturer, as we now have the knowledge and support of nutritionists and chefs that school catering services just don't have access to normally.
Our contact at Unilever has also been very good. We have been in constant contact since day one, and instead of being solely concerned about the sales of the products, she has helped us look at the areas each individual school needs help or support with, and work out what needs to be done to improve these areas.
 

* The Education (Nutitional Standards for School Food) (England) Regulations 2007 / The Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations.

See how eatz4u has made a difference to Smith's Wood College, Solihull: