Epsom College’s pioneering work with allmanhall and Foodsteps partnership

Overview

Independent School of the Year, Epsom College is yet again leading the way – this time when it comes to educating pupils about the carbon impact of their food. As well as making pupils’ dining experience more sustainable, they are now embarking on a journey to combine this with nutrition and dietetic information, to enable truly informed choices. Read on to learn more and for inspiration…

Background

Epsom College holds the coveted title of the Independent School of the Year and was also judged the best school for Student well-being in 2022.

As part of their sustainability and well-being focus, in mid–June 2022, Epsom College took the decision to increase the transparency and availability of data by assessing the carbon impact of their menus. This is made possible through an exclusive partnership between allmanhall and the award–winning recipe assessment platform, Foodsteps.

Foodsteps’ goal is to enable every food business to have a “better impact on the planet.” In independent education, they work in exclusive partnership with allmanhall to bring this platform to in–house catering teams. Together, through increased availability of information and effective supply chain management, allmanhall and Foodsteps are able to track and reduce the carbon emissions of food and drinks served in schools.

What happened?

Epsom College went live on the Foodsteps platform on 1 July 2022, with initial training and support arranged by allmanhall. By 7 July, the catering team had become familiar with the user-friendly platform and were able to add recipes to the system.

Their package allowed for 200 recipes, initially… but they quickly took the decision to increase this.

Epsom College currently has over 1000 recipes listed on Foodsteps.

The team have been working closely with Foodsteps to turn this information into posters that educate their pupils and to make the messages of ‘farm to fork’ very clear. With allmanhall’s support, Epsom College is working to debunk the myths associated with sustainability approaches that focus purely on local supply rather than what we eat.

Results

Epsom College currently has a growing number of recipes on Foodsteps, split into 12 collections. These are regularly reviewed and they are working with allmanhall to identify hero dishes – good for the pupils as well as the planet, combining sustainability and dietetics data for optimal outcomes.

Low carbon recipes

The average carbon intensity of their recipes is 5.21kg CO2e/kg, and 23% of their recipes (86/369) have Very Low Scores. Their lowest impact meal is Carrot and Coriander Soup with a carbon intensity of 0.13kg CO2e/kg.

Epsom College will begin work with allmanhall and Foodsteps on the second bank of hero recipes and to combine the carbon impact assessments with nutrition and dietetic advice, to ensure ongoing compliance to the School Food Standards and the School Food Plan from the Department for Education.

allmanhall continues to facilitate, adding the expertise of their in-house registered dietitian to the support they are providing this outstanding school, as they continue to inspire improvement and reduce their carbon impact.

What did the client say?

“At Epsom College, we are continually looking at the ways in which we can become more sustainable and teach our pupils about the food that they eat, where it comes from and the environmental impact of food choices. When people think about sustainability, often packaging and supply chains spring to mind, which of course is important, but we need to look at the food itself and this was a key reason why we chose to enter into this partnership with allmanhall and Foodsteps. It has been incredibly insightful and informative so far, for both my team as well as our pupils, and I look forward to starting the second phase.”