Whether your pupils prefer the simplicity of a plain pancake or want to go the extra mile with fresh fruit, yogurt, or even cheese and crackers, we’ve got the perfect treat for every palate.
If your school is participating in Pancake Day, please note that you would have already been sent the menu poster, allergen datasheet and carb chart via email.
We are delighted to share that HES Catering Services has received the Food for Life Bronze Award. This award by Soil Association Scotland shows our commitment to providing ethically sourced and high quality meals.
To receive a Bronze catering mark, our catering team has met the following guidelines:
A well done to every member of the team that made it possible to achieve the Food for Life Bronze Award
The 2024 East London & Essex Conference is taking place next month on Thursday 01 February at the CEME Business Park in Rainham.
This event presents a fantastic opportunity for Heads, Senior Leaders, and Business Managers to meet numerous suppliers working with Havering Education Services, including the Catering service.
If you’ve been considering a switch in catering providers for your primary or secondary school, securing your space and attending this highly anticipated conference is essential. It offers the perfect opportunity to meet the catering service manager, who can address your questions and provide insight into the service.
Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity of listening to talks by well-respected keynote speakers, including Simon Weston CBE, Dan Fitzpatrick, Samantha Garner, and Paul Roberts.
Book your space now to secure your ticket for this highly anticipated event.
We look forward to engaging with you at the conference!
“We didn’t have to search far for our special VIP guests for today’s special lunch. The children enjoyed seeing our special guests during lunchtime and around the school”
To mark National School Meals Week this year, we want to showcase our commitment to sustainability, aligning with this year’s central theme of ‘Eat more, waste less.’
We’ve introduced daily theme days to our secondary school menus, including ‘Eco-Mondays’. On Mondays, we proudly serve dishes that combines both meat and plant-based elements, reducing the meat portion by 50% and incorporating Quorn as a supplement. This initiative is leaving a positive footprint on our planet, resulting in reduced carbon emissions, minimized water usage, and a significant contribution to the preservation of our forests – a holistic, eco-friendly approach that benefits us all.
If you’re staff in one of our Havering school kitchens, we’re keen to see how you’re engaging with this initiative this week. Please share your photos with us at haveringcatering@havering.gov.uk
New Website FAQs
Haveringcatering.co.uk, as you know it, is changing! As our catering service continues to grow and expand… well, so must our website!
HES Catering (haveringcatering.co.uk) is getting a makeover and the new look website will be launching Thursday 2nd November at 3pm. We’re excited about our fresh online presence and we hope you are too!
Please feel free to browse the new website and enjoy. We know that you may still have questions so we have pulled together some common questions that may arise when looking for specific information.
What’s new?
Haveringcatering.co.uk will continue to showcase HES Catering’s offer and important information for schools and parents including payment, Free School Meals and, of course, our menus.
The new website features a clean, well thought-out design, with a new and improved navigation menu to make your browsing experience efficient and smooth. We’ve cleaned up our top-level menu for a tidier look and added drop-downs to help you access relevant pages more easily.
Why the change?
HES Catering is always looking at opportunities to improve our customers’ experience, both in schools and online. We decided the website needed a makeover and improved functions so that schools, parents and potential clients can find what they need.
You may notice a change in the website style and more use of the colours in our logo. The vibrant green, yellow and orange colours reflect the transition into a more mature stage of life, mirroring the journey of students as they progress from primary to secondary education, much like a bell pepper ripening from one stage to another.
Where are the all-important primary and secondary school menus?
In the top right corner of each page, you’ll find the vibrant green ‘Primary’ and cheerful yellow ‘Secondary’ buttons. Click to access the relevant stage and click ‘Our Menus’. This will lead you straight to the menu page you should already be familiar with.
Where did news, blog posts and updates go?
Once the new website is live, you’ll notice that all of our ‘Healthy Living’ posts have been integrated into our ‘Blogs’ page. This page is your one-stop shop for all of our blog posts, updates, news and case studies.
What else is changing?
The change to the website is one of many changes to come in the upcoming months. These changes will not affect our meals or service. The changes will merely affect our brand style, which will remain consistent from primary to secondary and across all of our materials so we will be instantly recognisable.
What if I need help or want to pass on feedback/suggestions?
As always, we would love to hear your feedback, suggestions and assist you with any queries.
Contact us by email, schoolcatering@havering.gov.uk, or call 01708 433 117. We are available Mon-Fri, 8:30am-4pm.
Congratulations to Charlotte Newman who was runner-up for The Peas Please Individual Champion Award 2021.
The Peas Please initiative was established to drive up vegetable consumption across the UK. Peas Please is a partnership with The Food Foundation, Food Sense Wales, Nourish Scotland, Belfast Food Network and Food NI. Since the project launched 4 years ago it has delivered 162 million additional portions of vegetables into our food system working across all 4 nations.
Charlotte, Havering Catering’s nutritionist, developed top trump style posters to help promote Crunch Bunch characters from the award-winning Veggie Run App, to display in the kitchen. These included the seasonality of vegetables, fun facts, nutritional benefits, and what meals these vegetables are in on the current school menu.
She worked closely with catering staff to introduce and include more vegetables within main meals on the menu. This helped to improve the nutritional quality of their menus and encourage fussy eaters to embrace more vegetables.
In collaboration with ProVegUK, Charlotte reworded vegetarian options to appeal to meat-eaters.
Together with colleagues, she helped to put together workshops with students about healthy eating as part of the curriculum. The aim of these sessions was to introduce the students to new and exciting vegetables and their varieties.
Joining forces with colleagues in Public Health, Charlotte also encouraged schools who participated in the Healthy School London Awards, to adopt the ‘Two Vegetable Policy’.This helped to normalise consuming at least two vegetables with their hot school lunch through regular exposure and supports students to eat more vegetables and adopt healthier lifestyles.
We at HCS are extremely proud of Charlotte’s extensive contribution to the service. Her prize, a large veg box from Riverford, is well deserved.
HES Catering Services today delivered our first outdoor food kiosk to the lucky pupils of Sanders Secondary school. The “Delish” branded kiosk will serve hot and cold meals/drinks and snacks to pupils and staff alike and reducing the queuing burden to the main school restaurant giving children more time to enjoy both their freshly prepared meals but also enjoy their lunch-breaks with friends rather than in queues.
Clare Rideout Area Manager commented “this is the first outdoor kiosk which will increase the meal options available to children, and reduce the queuing times during mid-morning and lunchtime breaks!
The kiosk will be open for business on Tuesday 25th February
Congratulations to Dahlia and Amelia from St Edwards C.E Primary school for being our latest winners to the Bike voucher from Halfords, all for just having a school meal.
Veggie Run, Havering Council’s award-winning healthy living campaign, is offering even more rewards to pupils who eat a healthy catered lunch in school thanks to two leading food suppliers.
The Council is partnering with butchers William White Meats and vegetable suppliers Prescott Thomas to create, ‘Veggie Run Family Roast Dinner Boxes.’
From Monday, 23 September any primary, junior or infant pupil who eats a healthy catered school lunch from award-winning Havering Education Service’s (HES) Catering Services will be in with a chance of winning one of these ‘Veggie Run Family Roast Dinner Boxes’ worth £25, to cook at home.
Every Thursday throughout the academic year until July 2020, a Havering primary school pupil will be selected at random to take home a Veggie Run roast dinner box if they have eaten a school-catered lunch that week.
These amazing prizes are aimed at developing children’s healthy cooking skills with their family.
Every roast dinner box will feed four to six people, and will include either 2kg topside beef, a whole chicken, pork loin or turkey from Butchers William White Meats Ltd and vegetables from supplier Prescott Thomas Ltd. Pupils and their family can then follow the Veggie Run roast dinner recipe cards to create a wholesome healthy meal.
Cllr Robert Benham, Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Families, said:
“I am delighted that through the Council’s healthy living Veggie Run campaign we are encouraging more pupils to cook from scratch with their families.
“HES Catering Services is passionate about organic food ingredients and home cooking, and they want to inspire and support Havering’s primary schoolchildren to become more confident and independent in the kitchen.”
HES Catering Services are keen to see pupils roast dinner cooking achievements and ask parents to share photos on social media using #VeggieRun
There's no question too big or too small. Whatever it is, we're here to help. Contact us today, and our friendly team will be ready to assist you with any enquiries or concerns you may have. We look forward to hearing from you!
