Moffat countering streamlines service at Shebbear College
Shebbear College is an independent co-educational school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18. Set in 85 acres of unspoilt north Devon countryside, Shebbear College has an impressive campus with sports fields and endless possibilities for outdoor activities as well as state of the art educational facilities.
Nutrition is an important part of pupil care, as Shebbear is a boarding as well as a day school. All the food is freshly prepared using locally-sourced ingredients. Pupils are offered a choice of meals, including hot main dishes, vegetarian selections, a range of cold meats, freshly made sandwiches and baguettes and a varied salad bar.
Recently Shebbear decided to upgrade its dining and servery area to speed up service and smarten up the operation. The dining area is located in an old part of the school buildings, so there were constrictions on what could be done as well as the usual problems associated with walls not being square and architectural features getting in the way.
“The old counters were over 20 years old,” says Mitch Kingsland, Catering Manager at Shebbear College. “They took up too much space, were very out of date and had out-lived their purpose. It was time to get some new ones.”
Chris Law of K.F.Bartlett Ltd was asked to provide the new servery counter as part of the re-fit and he contacted Moffat to fabricate a new, bespoke solution for the school.
“As this is such a prestigious site we wanted to make sure we specified the best counters,” says Law. “We know we can rely on Moffat to deliver on time and within budget. Moffat’s counters are of the highest quality and offer years of service.”
The requirements at Shebbear were quite specific – to decrease queuing, increase pupil choice and speed up the whole meal-time operation, while complimenting the dining area and, importantly, to come within budget.
“By clever design and consultation, Moffat have managed to increase space in the hot food serving area. Removable granite inserts were also provided which not only look smart, but maximise and add flexibility to the surface area available for serving and display, so that hot meal provision doesn’t totally rely on bains maries,” says Law.
The salad counter came under scrutiny as well. This has been totally redesigned to be free-standing, with a larger, refrigerated self-serve section to increase access for pupils, together with an integral water faucet and space for the schools existing beverage dispensers.
Manufactured to give a contemporary aesthetic, the countering uses a stainless steel frame, with a granite top – extended to form a tray slide with feature illumination beneath, gloss laminate front fascia panels and bonded glass sneeze screens.
“We wanted the new counters to be versatile, to match our changing requirements and make life easier for staff and pupils. They have ticked all the boxes and look fantastic,” says Kingsland. “We’re thrilled to bits with them and have even re-configured the whole dining room to fit in with the new look. It’s totally changed the perception of our meal service and brought us into the 21st century.”
E & R Moffat is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of quality foodservice equipment, designing and manufacturing in-house. Based in Bonnybridge, Scotland, the company manufactures standard and bespoke servery, regeneration and storage equipment and runs a full nationwide after-sales engineering team. E & R Moffat is accredited to ISO 9001:2008 and many of the products have gas approvals and are EMC tested. For more information on E & R Moffat visit the website on www.ermoffat.co.uk