Specialists in PR and marketing support for building services, building management and sustainability
PKL helps to enhance school meals in Croydon
A pre-fabricated semi-permanent kitchen and dining complex from PKL is being used to feed up to 500 pupils from three schools operated by Croydon County Council until a new permanent facility is built.
The new temporary building, which will be on site for at least five years, is located at Winterbourne Junior Boys ,Junior Girls and Infant schools site in Thornton Heath. It replaced a run-down kitchen building that had to be demolished and will eventually be replaced with a new kitchen and dining facility.
Pearl Knights from the Council’s catering department commented: “We worked closely with PKL in the design stages, exchanging ideas and fine-tuning the design to suit the school’s needs.”
The kitchen provides fresh preparation, hot production and cold storage facilities, with space to accommodate over 200 pupils in one sitting.
“We used to send food from the kitchen to the Girls’ and Infants schools but with the new facilities we are now able to bring the girls to the dining room to eat. The new kitchen is also better equipped than its predecessor, so we have more scope to enhance the meals in line with best practice for school meals,” Pearl Knights continued.
Procured through the Buying Solutions agency, the PKL kitchen has been supplied on contract hire basis, so that PKL takes responsibility for maintaining and, if necessary, replacing the equipment. “This arrangement transfers all of the financial risk relating to the equipment to PKL so the Council is not faced with any unforeseen expenditure,” Pearl Knights added.