CATERMAN
Response to Recommendations of School Meals Review Panel
“Turning the Tables:
Transforming School Food”
In their Main Report of 29th. September,
2005 the SMRP made 35 Recommendations under five main headings for effecting
the transformation of average UK school meals from their current parlous state
to an acceptable standard meeting modern criteria of choice, diet and value.
This web page is an introduction to our response to this challenge utilising CATERMAN to meet those recommendations in an efficient and economical way, costing £1 per pupil per term. Please read our responses in conjunction with page 11 of the report:
(http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/SMRP
Report Consultation Version FINAL.doc)
Recommendations
1 and 2: All recipes provide a complete nutrition analysis, and any recipes can
be selected from any menus across any date range to give complete nutrition
provision from those recipes.
Recommendation
3: CATERMAN provides for calculation of resources and manpower required to
produce any menu(s), plus required ingredients, methods/instructions and HACCP
with subsequent production trail and product tracking if required.
Recommendation
4: CATERMAN can be applied to any service, not just restaurants.
Recommendation
5: Inclusion of nutrient data from external sources such as NATS2 and USDA (US
Department of Agriculture) to recipes is quick and easy, and should a suitable
UK source become available this will also be accommodated. Manual entry of
nutrition data is of course available.
Recommendation
6: Menu planning, recipe production preceded by suggested ordering is provided.
Facilities for pupils to pre-order and pre-pay for meals using the internet can
be provided, thus a meal can be ready on a tray at a pre-ordained time for
collection by an identified (using swipe card/RFID tag/etc.) pupil – meals
uncollected for legitimate reasons can be refunded.
Recommendation
7: Not applicable.
Recommendation
8: CATERMAN provides for local suppliers to proffer their products directly to
the school/caterer via the internet. Approved suppliers are set-up on CATERMAN
with an external access password which allows the supplier to maintain price
and availability data for his products which are then presented to the
purchaser (school/caterer) as an option when considering purchase of a stock
item. The purchaser is informed of any special properties of the supplier
(local, quality star, etc.) to be taken into consideration.
Recommendation
9: All recipes purchased by a pupil are recorded, and can be analysed for
nutritional content over any period of time. This can also be done by selected
groups of pupils.
Recommendation
10: Target nutrient provision/consumption can be entered and used for reports
of performance for any period of time.
Recommendation
11: All recipes can be accompanied by resource and personnel requirements with
skill levels, preparation and production methods.
Recommendation
12: Interaction between customers (pupils) and catering staff via the internet
is encouraged by CATERMAN. Customers may enter remarks/suggestions to the
system (subject to authorisation), and catering staff may respond.
Recommendation
13: Parents/guardians with authorisation may inspect the menus, recipes and
ingredient data of CATERMAN, plus their own customer purchases over any time
period. The school policies etc. are expected to be on the school website.
Recommendation
14: CATERMAN provides for multiple organisations, including training units,
either as part of the overall account or as separate training accounts. Pupils
should be encouraged to create their own recipes and recognise the nutrient
content. CATERMAN is used by colleges for specialised chef training, and
accommodates complete curriculum so that provisioning for classes is
automatically made.
Recommendation
15: Interaction with local suppliers is accommodated.
Recommendation
16: Parents/guardians can mix and match between school meals and packed lunches
if they wish.
Recommendation
17: CATERMAN provides for set school meals and/or cafeteria environments.
Cashless service is promoted by use of pupil accounts even in cafeteria
situations.
Recommendation
18: CATERMAN allows for complete anonymity for free school meals recipients.
There is no discernible difference between pupils with a daily spend limit
whose accounts have been incremented by internet, bank transfer or allowance.
Recommendation
19: CATERMAN is constantly developed to provide new facilities.
Recommendation
20: CATERMAN already assimilates data from NATS2 (http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/mainnat.html)
and USDA (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/index.html)
databases. We await developments from the FSA.
Recommendation
21: CATERMAN is so economical compared with any other known cashless catering
system (no proprietary EPOS terminals, no expensive smart cards, no
maintenance, etc., etc.) that money can be diverted to reducing school meal
costs.
Recommendation
22: Where does all the money go? CATERMAN provides for full transparency on all
aspects of catering.
Recommendation
23: With school permission, government and/or local authorities can monitor catering
activity utilising a variety of reports via the internet.
Recommendation
24: CATERMAN facilitates mobility of EPOS terminals to enable flexible dining
room layouts. EPOS terminals based on Wi-Fi enabled laptop computers can be
used anywhere in range of the Wi-Fi router.
Recommendation
25-26: Not in CATERMAN scope.
Recommendation
27: Monitoring catering performance and costs is facilitated by CATERMAN,
together with long-term nutrient consumption by pupils/groups of pupils as raw
data for educational psychologist statistical study.
Recommendation
28-30: Not in CATERMAN scope.
Recommendation
31: How do you identify children who are nutritionally at risk? CATERMAN helps
to do this.
Recommendation
32: CATERMAN developments currently in-hand include a Monitoring Sub-System
that will provide powerful facilities for inspectors and other interested
parties to monitor all aspects of any selected activity.
Recommendation
33: CATERMAN pilots are provided for £10! Why not try it! See http://www.caterman.org/
Recommendation
34: CATERMAN can be provided for schools by local authorities for as little as
£100 per school per annum. All reports covering individual schools or groups of
schools are available centrally. If required, a central CATERMAN server can be
purchased and run by the LEA rather than using the standard internet version.
Recommendation
35: When this database becomes available CATERMAN will accommodate it if
feasible.
We
believe that CATERMAN represents a major breakthrough in the cost effective
provision of catering management, especially for schools and colleges. If there
are any areas or aspects in which you believe CATERMAN could be improved,
please contact us.