Marden High School

Ensuring all children have the opportunity to eat healthy food at school rather than go off site is a goal of many schools and catering mangers.

At Marden High School in North Tyneside, the introduction of the Food Cube from PKL, as part of a complete dining facilities review, has led to a staggering 48% rise in food sales as pupils stay and eat at school.

The dining facilities review was carried out by North Tyneside Council. The council's catering service knew that they wanted to install an external service area to increase choice and decrease queuing times for nearly 900 pupils.

"The Food Cube from PKL fitted the school's requirements perfectly," said Barbara Patterson, Catering Services Manager at North Tyneside Council. "PKL were very flexible and offered a number of options for both the exterior and interior of the Cube. The fact that the Cube came fully fitted out was also a huge selling point. It was fantastic to see the Cube being craned onto site and ready to go within a matter of hours with no worry about building work over running or snagging issues to deal with."

To ensure the maximum impact for the introduction of the Food Cube, PKL worked with the catering team to use the same branding and colour scheme on the exterior of the Cube to tie in with the rest of the catering facilities. The catering team also surveyed students to find out what type of food they wanted to purchase. As a result, PKL fitted out the interior to enable the provision of a hot pasta offer, deli sandwiches, bakery items and fresh fruit, together with a range of healthy drinks. North Tyneside Council also funded new canopies to shelter the exterior seating around the Cube, making the area popular even in inclement weather.

"The students are very happy with their new service," said Barbara. "Since the refurbishment of the dining facilities and the installation of the Cube, income has increased by 48% on the same period last year. It has been a great addition to the catering facilities at Marden, providing a fast and efficient way to create an additional service point. It has really helped to improve service, increase income and reduce queuing time for students."