The catering service at Macclesfield Hospital has become only the second hospital in England to be awarded the Soil Association Food for Life Bronze Catering Mark for both its restaurant food and its patient food, recognising its drive for fresh meals and good food for all.
Providing over 200 daily meals to hospital visitors and staff as well as the general public and out-patients and 350 to in-patients, Macclesfield is part of an exciting nationwide initiative by catering providers ISS Facilities Services to improve hospital food.
Excellent staff feedback
In a Family and Friends test of the new in-patient menus, feedback to catering and care staff was excellent. “Staff lovely; food lovely,” said one patient. Another commented: “The food was good – which I didn’t expect – and the smiles on the faces of the staff always made me feel warm.”
The initiative involves changing menus, working with suppliers, sourcing fresh produce, preparing meals on site and training staff. For the team at Macclesfield, the passion to improve food in retail outlets and for patients stemmed from a desire to promote the benefits of healthy eating to everyone in the local area.
Independent endorsement
Helping people to find good food, the Food for Life Catering Mark is an independent endorsement that the restaurant is using fresh ingredients free from harmful additives and trans-fats and better for animal welfare. The Catering Mark is recognised by the Department of Health as a tool which can support hospitals and their caterers to make improvements to the quality of food served to patients, staff and visitors.
Robyn Vale, retail and kitchen manager, ISS Healthcare at Macclesfield Hospital, has led the changes and said: “Only one other ISS hospital catering team in England has so far won an award for improving both retail and patient food. I am so proud of what the team here has achieved, and I know they will work their socks off to go from Bronze to Gold.”
Over one million high quality Catering Mark meals are being served each workday in schools, universities, nurseries, workplaces, hospitals, care homes and restaurants across the UK. Caterers working with the Food for Life Catering Mark are transforming food service providing more fresh, nutritious, environmentally sustainable, British, quality meals. Catering Mark meals are now served in over 25% of schools in England, 20% of universities, 300+ nurseries and 100+ care homes and hospitals.
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