Cover story – advertising feature Significant savings on labour, waste, and ease of service at the VSA Group
apetito partnered with VSA Group to create efficiencies while maintaining the highest quality. The group, based in Aberdeen, offers care, support, and vital services to vulnerable people living in its communities. John Booth is chief operating officer of the
VSA Group.
“Within our homes for many years, we had chefs in the kitchen as we liked the label of ‘fresh’ – but alongside the promise of ‘fresh’ came unpredictability and cost was at a premium.
“It’s not easy to recruit chefs and to ensure consistency and guarantee cover, we found ourselves having to supplement our internal teams with agency staff who
longer need a trained chef on-site, as meals are designed to be easily heated and served. Staff can cook all our meals easily from frozen, meaning that with some initial training, the complexities of managing kitchen teams and ensuring cover can be reduced significantly – and this means a notable reduction in costs. By reducing the reliance on skilled culinary professionals, care homes can mitigate the impact of the ongoing labour crisis and ensure consistent meal service without compromising quality. Against the backdrop of skilled labour shortages, this is proving highly desirable, helping care homes overcome fruitless recruitment efforts for chefs capable of handling the dietary complexities that residents require. We know that food waste and portion control can have a significant impact on a care home’s bottom line. Every uneaten meal has a cost implication. And the number of residents booked for mealtimes can change unpredictably, for example, residents can arrive back from hospital appointments later than expected or a relative may arrive and take them out, meaning they miss a meal. Homes that have partnered with us
have found their food waste significantly reduced. This is because apetito’s pre- prepared meals and portion guidance makes it easy and allows teams to serve delicious meals tailored to their residents’ exact needs, minimising food waste. We offer a choice of over 200 meals and desserts, prepped and cooked by our talented chefs then flash-frozen in different portion sizes to lock in nutrition
March 2024
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
were unreliable, expensive, and challenging to manage. “There was also the question of food waste and portion control, for lots of different reasons including family ‘take-outs’. Inflation instability also impacted on the commercial side, with product/supplier shortages and rapidly increasing costs and associated administrative complexity increasing all the time.” VSA opted for change across its entire catering operation and partnered with apetito. John says that if he considers the commercial issues of making a change in service, that there has been a big saving across labour, in reducing waste, and certainly
and flavour. Our allergen-free and texture modified ranges come in single portions, so care homes can order the exact amount of specialist nutrition meals they need. This means you can offer resident a wide range of nutritious meals but minimise the quantity of food you throw away. To make it even easier, each care home has a dedicated account manager, who is able to show staff how to order, store, and prepare our meals, as well as supporting staff with portion guides and food diaries to help keep waste to a minimum. Another real benefit is that with apetito costs are fixed, which totally removes the headaches and stress of having to understand costs and how these can be controlled. The impact of inflation on care homes’ weekly shopping bills is removed, with kitchen and management teams enjoying full transparency of costs, while still being able to relax in the knowledge that there is no reduction in mealtime quality. By partnering with apetito, care homes can unlock substantial cost savings within their catering operations. Through a combination of leaner labour structures, controlled costs, and reduced food waste, we are able to deliver ultra-efficient financials, which help give care homes more money and resources to dedicate back to frontline care, ultimately enhancing residents’ experiences.
Reference 1 Care Quality Commission. State of Care 2022/23.
https://www.cqc.org. uk/publications/major-report/state- care/2022-2023
mealtimes are now significantly easier to manage and without any loss of food quality. “We have reduced our waste significantly as our portion control is far more effective under the new service. “Furthermore, we no longer need cooks in the kitchen – we have streamlined catering roles and created two catering managers across four sites supported by café assistants within each home. “There’s less admin, less invoices, less suppliers, less people to manage, and this alone has removed a big stress factor including the removal of expensive agency staff. Our team can now focus on front line care.”
Richard Woodward
Richard Woodward is general manager of apetito’s care home division, the leading experts in serving nutritious delicious meals. Richard joined the company back in 2003 and has held roles in apetito’s sales, marketing, and care homes team. As general manager of care homes, Richard has spearheaded the growth of this division and encouraged innovation, having introduced the ground-breaking Finger Foods Range, which gives those living with dementia the opportunity to dine with dignity.
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