Former LACA chair Lynda wins Cost Sector Education Award
Immediate past-chair of LACA Lynda Mitchell and the contracts team won the 2013 Cost Sector Catering Education Award when the annual awards were handed out at the Hilton London Metropole.
Judges said that when Contracts Management at North Somerset Council Meal took over uptake in region had been at a very low point at less than 17%.
There were no easy gains to be made, such as boosting free school meals, because in North Somerset only 10% of pupils are entitled to them.
Nevertheless, there had been steady improvement and in the six years since the contracts team was created meal uptake has doubled.
Runners-up in the keenly contested category, sponsored by Premier Foods, were Nicola Bowen-Smith, the kitchen manager at Riverbank School; the Catering Team at Tayside Contracts; Steve Evans, the general services manager at Nottingham Girls High School; and Brad Pearce, the education catering manager for Plymouth City Council.
Meanwhile, the Contract Caterer Award, sponsored by Gram UK, went to specialist education caterer Taylow Shaw. The category was dominated by education caterers this year, with the four runners-up all involved in school meals - Aspens Services; Innovate Services; ISS Facility Services Education; and The Brookwood Partnership.