Changes to canteen service

We are very pleased to welcome your child to/back to Blackfen School for Girls this September. We hope that they have a very enjoyable and productive academic year.

As you may be aware, the government has set all public service bodies a target to reduce our carbon emissions and become as environmentally friendly as possible in the near future. Here at Blackfen, we are attempting to meet our targets in a variety of ways. One of these is moving away from single-use items in the canteen and introducing reusable cutlery and crockery.

We introduced this as a pilot scheme in the last week of the summer term, back in July. The majority of our Key Stage 3 students, who were in school at the time, welcomed the changes as they understood the reasoning behind it. However, there were some queries that we wanted to address before students return next week.

Why are the school introducing reusable dinnerware?
As mentioned above, the government have set us strict targets to reduce our impact on the environment. By introducing reusable dinnerware, we are working towards meeting those targets in several ways. Firstly, single-use food containers have a detrimental effect on the environment as they add to landfill and take lots of energy to produce. By drastically reducing the number of single-use containers leaving our canteen daily, we are taking a large step towards reducing the carbon footprint that Blackfen creates in the world. Secondly, much of the litter around the school site is food containers from the canteen. By reducing the amount of litter, we are automatically reducing our negative impact on our school environment and the global environment.

Another reason that we are introducing reusable dinnerware is cost. Each academic year, Blackfen spends approximately £10,000 on single-use containers for the canteen. I’m sure you can agree that money would be better spent elsewhere in the school.

The vast majority of Blackfen students attended a primary school in the local area and ate their lunch from reusable dinnerware, as did the majority of parents/carers when they attended school. Single-use containers and bamboo cutlery are not the norm, nor should they be treated as such. 
At Blackfen we are very proud of the excellent food provided by our chef and catering team. We believe that eating a hot meal on a plate with proper cutlery will make for a more pleasant dining experience and will showcase the food at its best.

What if my child doesn’t want to eat in the canteen?
Students don’t have to eat in the canteen. There are ‘grab and go’ food options, such as sandwiches, wraps, pizza, sausage rolls etc, available from both the Glasshouse and the Food Cube.
If your child would prefer a hot meal for their lunch but does not want to eat in the canteen, single-use containers and cutlery will still be available. However, this will now carry a small cost of 25p per meal, this will be added to the total cost of the meal at the till.
Your child will need to make the canteen server staff aware that they wish to ‘take away’ their lunch, as the standard serving will now be on reusable dinnerware that cannot be taken outside of the canteen. 
Take-away lunches will need to be eaten outside of the canteen. There are many picnic benches in covered areas, there is also the sports hall, glass house, and classrooms should there be inclement weather.

Should your child be in receipt of Free School Meals, the school has agreed not to charge them for the single-use containers. 
Though, we would encourage all of our students eating a hot lunch to eat from the reusable dinnerware.

How is this going to work?
There will now be a one-way system in the canteen. All students entering the canteen will do so through the main, central doors. There will be NO EXIT through the central doors. 
The exit doors are now the double doors in the top corner of the canteen, so that students are able to efficiently clear their plates and stow their trays/plates/cutlery at the refuse station en-route to exiting the canteen.
All those wishing to eat a hot meal in the canteen will need a tray,  their meal will then be served to them on reusable dinnerware and with reusable cutlery.
Those wishing to ‘take away’ should make this known to the server,  their meal will be served in a single-use container with bamboo cutlery and the additional charge will be added to their meal at the till. Once they have paid for their meal they must then exit the canteen via the exit doors.
We would like to remind those students who take away their food, to please dispose of your containers in the correct bin and respect your school surroundings.

We hope that these changes will, with time, become a normal part of life at Blackfen, and we thank you for helping us to make Blackfen a greener, cleaner, and more pleasant environment for all members of our Blackfen community.

Should you have any queries in connection with this letter, please contact me as soon as possible.

Mrs D Dunsdon, Student Co-ordinator and Mr G Morgan, Business Manager