I am up bright and early after a fantastic night at the EDUcatering Awards. Firstly well done to Alan Dewberry and his team at H20 Publishing for organising yet another great event. It was nice to see so many old faces and was a chance for the industry to really shout about all the good work that's going on. For the first time at the event there was a Twitterwall and I really enjoyed reading all the tweets from people in the room and those following the event online. Imagine hundreds of people all sat round a table chatting about school food, that's the feel the tweets gave and it was a fun addition to the night!
Another great part of the night was the Schools Got Talent performances where three different young acts performed. I loved watching the choir from Wales who were just brilliant and many people were on their feet when they finished a rendition from The Lion King. However the winner was a young girl called Meghan who lives in the North East. She was a really great singer and I am sure she has a bright future ahead of her.
So after some delicious food and quality entertainment it was on to the actual awards. I really did feel for all the nervous nominees as I sat on stage. With Bernard Matthews Foodservice sponsoring the Newcomer Award I was there to announce the winner and present the prize. This was to go to a newcomer in school catering who has made a meteoric impact since entering the sector. And the winner was Jason Carter, general manager at Grace Academy.
Jason arrived at Grace Academy last year to run the catering service under a new contract with Aspens. He has worked under many guises within the catering industry, but for the past seven years, he has honed his skills in the education sector.
As well as implementing a number of initiatives at the three Grace Academy sites, he has managed the day-to-day services of the school meal provision for 3,000 students and 500 staff, and has been particularly lauded for his enthusiasm and in coming up with new ideas.
He has supported students at Grace Academy Solihull to set up their own business to supply the school with fresh, local produce grown in their own vegetable garden, worked with students to arrange business lunches within the school to give them the experience of formal dining events, while Food Technology pupils learn about working under pressure to serve these lunches.
Other examples of Jason’s work include communicating with the school council across the three sites to launch initiatives like a milkshake and yoghurt bar. By working with the school council, he tells students all about the actions he has taken in response to feedback of the meals service.
I loved being a part of this prestigious event as Bernard Matthews Foodservice and its Big Green Tick range of products developed in conjunction with LEAs and school caterers, is committed to supporting education catering. This year we are also sponsoring Get Traditional Day of LACA’s National School Meals Week and the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Family Food Appreciation workshops.
We are really pleased it was the Newcomer Award that we sponsored. I do think that those coming fresh into the sector face many expectations, including the need to balance children’s tastes with government guidelines. Jason is the perfect example of someone who has brought their skills, dedication and experience with them to a new job, and used these to bring something fresh into a fast-changing field with many challenges. Congratulations to Jason and the other two finalists from everyone at Bernard Matthews Foodservice.