Catering team at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH) has been awarded Healthcare Caterer of the Year at this year’s Foodservice Cateys Awards, and is the first NHS Trust to win this award. The Foodservice Cateys Awards celebrate and recognise the people working tirelessly to ensure their organisation delivers an exceptional service.
The team, who have been working in partnership with facilities management consultancy Neller Davies and caterer BM, won the award for their innovative approach to catering which has transformed traditional hospital catering into sustainable and high-quality restaurant food at ASPH.
Since the Trust’s retail catering services were brought in-house in October 2020, the team have been able to increase the variety of food offered, implement new technologies such as a ‘click and collect’ service, and provide a greener, more sustainable service.
The Catering team are led by Raouf Mansour, Head of Catering, who’s vision was to challenge the traditional hospital catering model and create high-quality sustainable restaurant food. This has been achieved with seasonal menus, re-modelled dining areas where colleagues eat and socialise, and reduction of carbon emissions through education, sourcing, and growing of local produce.
The outstanding work of the team has also led to the Trust being selected as one of the first of 20 NHS catering exemplar sites and has even been commended by Dame Prue Leith.
Raouf said: “We’re hugely pleased that the Catering team has been awarded Healthcare Caterer of the Year at the Foodservice Cateys! I am incredibly lucky to work with such an inspiring and dedicated team who work hard to ensure that we are providing high-quality food for our patients and Team, I’d like to thank my colleagues for their exemplar work ethic and can-do attitude.”
Julie Smith, Chief Executive at Ashford and St Peter’s, said: “We are incredibly lucky to have such a fantastic Catering team at ASPH, who provide such a wonderful variety of nutritious food for colleagues and patients. A huge congratulations to the whole team, and thank you for all that you do!”
Julie Smith, Raouf Mansour, and Simon Marshall
