As part of our company-wide target to see 100% of our services diverting food waste from landfill by 2025, we’ve introduced new initiatives where surplus food from our Oasis Community Learning (OCL) contract is offered to those most in need across the academy community.
Supporting disadvantaged families while eliminating food waste at Oasis Academy Short Heath
Since April 2019, our catering team at Oasis Academy Short Heath in the Midlands has been redistributing hot meals leftover after lunch service to disadvantaged people in the local community. Up to six surplus meals a day are offered to parents of pupils who are most in need. These families are contacted by the local Oasis Hub Manager and invited to immediately to enjoy a healthy hot meal free of charge. Families are contacted by the Hub Manager on a rotating basis so they all have a chance to benefit from this initiative. This gives us and the school additional opportunities to engage with parents and enhances their sense of belonging to Oasis and wider community.
Reducing pupil hunger as well as food waste at Oasis John Williams
Since spring 2018, our team at Oasis Academy John Williams in Bristol has worked collaboratively with OCL staff to reduce food waste and ensure pupils do not go hungry.
Our team liaises with academy staff at morning break to identify pupils from disadvantaged families who’ve arrived at school without breakfast or even a previous evening meal, and discreetly distributes surplus food from breaktime. We regularly provide four pupils a day with an energy-boosting snack (e.g. bagel) to help them focus on lessons until lunchtime. After lunch service, our catering team collates any surplus sandwiches, salads, pasta pots etc. for those pupils who may not have access to an evening meal. Up to 45 disadvantaged pupils a day benefit from leftover grab-n-go items enabling us to rescue good food from going to waste while importantly preventing pupil hunger.
Endorsed by our food safety team
Our food redistribution initiatives have received the full backing and authorisation of Safeguard, our in- house team dedicated to ensuring our company food safety policies and procedures are rigorously applied.
Win-Win for all
These initiatives simultaneously help us to reduce food waste and hunger within OCL communities, supporting our joint mission to improve the health, wellbeing and learning outcomes of young people. Feedback from OCL academies has been overwhelmingly positive regarding our commitment to supporting vulnerable members of their community.
The Hub Manager at Oasis Academy Short Heath commented:
I would just like to say a very big thank you for the food that has been given to our vulnerable families. We try to distribute the food fairly and wherever possible we offer it out to families that we know will not have an evening meal. So far you have helped 8 families.That is huge... It is very humbling to see families accepting food and makes you realise how fortunate we are to have three meals a day.