School meals outsourced (From The Oxford Times)

Will they improve to as poorer standard as hospital food supplied by they same group?

My wife had the misfortune of receiving Carillion "food" whilst at the JR a year and a half ago. I would often get phone calls with her in tears asking me to bring food with me when I visited because she was so hungry.

Once I tried said "food" and have to say it was cold, tasteless and had a strange grey pallor. Oh and the processed meat (probably mechanically extracted) formed into "steaks" was something to behold.

Now our kids have to look forward to this slop. What did they do to deserve that?

TehFluff wrote:
My wife had the misfortune of receiving Carillion "food" whilst at the JR a year and a half ago. I would often get phone calls with her in tears asking me to bring food with me when I visited because she was so hungry.

Once I tried said "food" and have to say it was cold, tasteless and had a strange grey pallor. Oh and the processed meat (probably mechanically extracted) formed into "steaks" was something to behold.

Now our kids have to look forward to this slop. What did they do to deserve that?

Well put!

Given the new firm would appear to be employing the same capable staff on current conditions I guess the only thing left to cut will be the food quality to make even more money - short term. I await my chef colleague's comment. Why would a council department making a £900k surplus be sold? So our council tax can go up even more? Oh yes! Dogma, everything state is bad everything private is good. (as opposed to the reverse reality 99% of the time, its just a few top people making more money at the expense of the masses).

My sons both spent time in the JR children's unit over the last couple of years. We bought them lunch from the cafe downstairs, and pizza or McDonalds for dinner. They couldn't bring themselves to eat the catered "food".

TehFluff wrote:
My wife had the misfortune of receiving Carillion "food" whilst at the JR a year and a half ago. I would often get phone calls with her in tears asking me to bring food with me when I visited because she was so hungry.

Once I tried said "food" and have to say it was cold, tasteless and had a strange grey pallor. Oh and the processed meat (probably mechanically extracted) formed into "steaks" was something to behold.

Now our kids have to look forward to this slop. What did they do to deserve that?

I was in the West Wing last year. and the meals were M&S ready prep standard. I had a large steaming hot shepherds pie, and also remember a very nice Vindaloo off of the Halal menu, and with the missus smuggling me in mini bottles of wine to go with it I have no complaints about the food or service at all. But back to the schools, the council are being clever because with more of them becoming academies they can pull out of the school meals scheme so the council are protecting our money, well done OCC on this one.

In part it may be about money, but the biggest reason for going this route is to negate those responsible (Huw Jones and gang) of any liability for school meals, next time your child complains of cold food or inadequate portions don't phone OCC because they'll divert you to Carillion, No wonder our councils spend so much on consultants, all they're doing is hedging their bets, they can't be accused of making a bad decision if its made for them by consultants, just as out sourcing everything also removes their liabilities too.

Wizzy man, they had no choice as the government allow acadamies to opt out. The council could have been stuck with the old contract, but only supplying half the schools, at the same money. Blame DAVEY BOY it is his big society.

L0RD PETER MCVEY 0X2 6EG wrote:

TehFluff wrote:
My wife had the misfortune of receiving Carillion "food" whilst at the JR a year and a half ago. I would often get phone calls with her in tears asking me to bring food with me when I visited because she was so hungry.

Once I tried said "food" and have to say it was cold, tasteless and had a strange grey pallor. Oh and the processed meat (probably mechanically extracted) formed into "steaks" was something to behold.

Now our kids have to look forward to this slop. What did they do to deserve that?

I was in the West Wing last year. and the meals were M&S ready prep standard. I had a large steaming hot shepherds pie, and also remember a very nice Vindaloo off of the Halal menu, and with the missus smuggling me in mini bottles of wine to go with it I have no complaints about the food or service at all. But back to the schools, the council are being clever because with more of them becoming academies they can pull out of the school meals scheme so the council are protecting our money, well done OCC on this one.

Mini bottles of wine! ;)

I think a great deal of your food experience is directly related to how many hours you food has been sat on the porters trolley. If you are lucky enough to be situated in the hospital near to the kitchen / loading bay then you may have a better time of it.

Still, this does not excuse the "veal escallops" (I remembered the dish). I think “mechanically extracted formed connective tissue” would have been a better title.

The outsourcing of services will only ever result in poor product and service coupled with large profits. Service level agreements and contract requirements are there to protect product and service and often do initially. But over time you see the standards slide which result in promises from the companies to improve and if they don’t eventual loss of contract. Then of course another company is more than happy to receive half a billion in return for shabby service in the long run. *sigh*