Sunderland school catering gets a digital upgrade

Designed by food industry experts, the system allows parents to order and pay for their child's school meals digitally at home and makes the school catering process smoother for both parents and school staff. It not only saves schools money through ingredient management and reduced administration costs but provides greater protection for those children with specific food allergies or requirements through flagging up each child's dietary requirements.

The first school to introduce the system in Sunderland is Hylton Castle primary school . Head teacher Mrs Wood , said: "We were really keen to introduce the pre-order system and are happy with how it has gone. The implementation process itself has been very straightforward and the feedback from parents and children has been really positive. It has also had a very noticeable impact on the management on the lunchtime period, making the serving of meals a much easier process and creating a more relaxed and enjoyable dining environment for the children."

Following the successful introduction of Evolve at Hylton Castle primary school, the system will be implemented in several other schools over the coming weeks

Ernie Dewhirst, managing director at Evolve 4 Solutions with over 30 years' experience in the food industry, says: "The cost-of-living crisis means most are feeling the pinch, from families and schools through to councils. Our software has been designed to keep children safe, which Natasha's Law has shown us is more important than ever, as well as save valuable time and money for schools and councils by reducing operating costs.

"We are glad to see that the product has been popular with the primary schools within Sunderland City Council and our teams will continue to support with the onboarding process with those schools who opt in to working with us."

Sunderland City Council's Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Skills, Councillor Louise Farthing said: "We are delighted to be working in partnership with Evolve 4 Solutions to implement their school meals pre-order system in our schools. The system will make it easier for children and parents to select nutritious schools meals and help contribute to the health and wellbeing of children across Sunderland. it will help to reduce food waste and food costs, which is especially important in terms of sustainability and the current inflationary pressure on food costs that everyone is feeling"

Evolve 4 Solutions is a business that operates across the food industry with the intention of making the UK food industry a better place through effective food management systems and implementation.  It is a change management organisation that handles billions of pounds worth of food production in the UK.