Foodservice Cateys 2022: Education Caterer of the Year – Taylor Shaw

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Taylor Shaw impressed our judges with its ethos of never applying a ‘one size fits all’ approach, recognising that no two schools or pupils are the same.

The company was founded in 1998 and employs more than 2,600 people working across over 750 primary, secondary and college sites across the UK. It is responsible for feeding around 4,000 primary school children with allergies every day and has created more than 600 bespoke meal plans to ensure each one is safely well catered for. It also provides bespoke meal plans to children with medical conditions such as type 1 diabetes, ketogenic diets for children with epilepsy and higher energy meal plans for those with cystic fibrosis.

Taylor Shaw recently became a founding partner of Natasha’s Foundation, which works to make living with allergies more manageable for people.

The company said it sees itself as more than a ‘school caterer’ and provides event toolkits for classroom-based activities for KS1 and KS2 pupils, as well as support with assemblies, cookery classes and healthy eating weeks.

Amid the challenge of rising food prices, the group has sought to improve the nutritional value of its menus by increasing the use of plant and pulse-based recipes. It also offers a ‘lower carbon’ menu and has a target that all of its state school partners will be beef-free by 2022.

Feedback is crucial to the company’s offering, and it recently gathered responses from 300 pupils at the Gorse Academies Trust through focus groups and sampling sessions. This led to the creation of a new range of dishes based on student choice, introducing healthy concepts such as rice bowls and swapping white bread for wholemeal, as well as work to reduce queuing times and better menu signposting and layout of options.

Taylor Shaw also makes use of technology to improve customer experience, including allowing college students to pre-order dishes in advance through its Breaz app to reduce waiting times. Since going live at the Costa Coffee site at Elliott Hudson college, the number of items ordered has risen by 7%.

Educational concept Eativerse, based around three planets, has been introduced in primary schools to encourage healthy lifestyle choices. The menus operate on a three-week cycle to offer fresh choices throughout the year.

Our judges said the entry showed students were put at “the heart of the business” and praised the use of technology and individual approach to menus as “outstanding”.

What the judges said

“It’s great that pupils had been asked their opinion in focus groups and sampling session. Love the no ‘one size fits all’ approach and great targeting of technology at different audiences.” Melissa McMinn

“Enjoyed the diverse range of offers for all age ranges, recognising their differing needs. The technology usage was very positive, as was the focus on older children and free school meals. Really liked the special diets that have been made available to those in need." Deborah Homshaw

The shortlist

Aramark

Taylor Shaw

Wilson Vale

Past winners

2021 CH&Co Education

2019 Hampshire County Council Catering Services

2018 CATERed

2017 ISS Facility Services Education

2016 Murray Soper, Bartlett Mitchell

2015 Emma Williams, Green & Fortune

2014 Jamie Stevenson, BaxterStorey

2013 Renier Oberholzer, Harbour & Jones