Northamptonshire County Council

PKL has supplied a total of 100 KitchenPods to schools in Northamptonshire as part of the County Council's Hot School Meals programme, designed to raise the nutritional quality of school meals.

Northamptonshire County Council embarked on a broad-ranging programme to equip primary schools with kitchen facilities, using a mix of refurbishment of existing facilities, new build and PKL's KitchenPods. The latter have proved particularly cost-effective in situations where there was no space in the existing school buildings to site a kitchen.

Working closely with the County Council, PKL developed three sizes of kitchen, capable of providing between 70 and 150 hot meals per day. Each was sized to have extra capacity to account for anticipated increases in pupil numbers. Where the KitchenPods could not be sited very close to existing buildings, regeneration trolleys were supplied.

The roll out of PKL's KitchenPods was undertaken in two phases. During 2010, we successfully constructed, designed and installed 32 KitchenPods which were supplied on a contract rental basis. Phase two of the project undertaken in 2011 and 2012 saw the delivery a further 70 units, which were procured outright via capital purchase.

PKL is responsible for the service and maintenance of both the KitchenPods that were procured on a contract rental basis and those that were purchased outright. The maintenance agreement covers both the building and equipment within each KitchenPod, with the county paying a single fee which covers all parts, service, maintenance, labour, replacement equipment and preventative maintenance of each kitchen.

"We have had a very good service from PKL and they have been very responsive to our needs. The new kitchens have also been well received by staff."
Martin Hewins, Northamptonshire County Council

PKL and Northamptonshire County Council won a joint Innovation Award at the 2011 Educatering Excellence Awards in relation to this programme.