Less expensive school meals for children are possible without reducing portion sizes or calling for financial contribution from parents
Instead of reducing portion sizes or collecting additional funds from parents, it is possible to make the school meals cost less by efficiently organizing work in the kitchen and outsourcing catering from professional catering companies. Due to their knowledge and accumulated experience as well as higher sales volumes, professional catering organizations are able to offer significantly lower prices of food and more cost-efficient catering administration services without diminishing food quality or portion sizes. Such is the opinion of the Public Enterprise KRETINGOS MAISTAS, which has been catering for school and kindergartens for more than 8 years.
"We frequently hear the announcements that due to insufficient financial resources for school meals some educational institutions see no other way but to collect additional funds from children's parents, downsize the portions, and sometimes even refuse the medications, which in some specialized educational institutions are absolutely necessary. Such decisions are undoubtedly painful both for the school children and for their parents. Our practice suggests that the biggest problem in most of the cases is the inefficiently managed catering. Our professional knowledge and experience in the field allowed the municipalities of the country to save millions of Litas. Therefore, the harsh measures should be put aside until all the better alternatives are considered", says Mr. Irmantas Norkus, the Chief Executive Officer of KRETINGOS MAISTAS.
Mr. Norkus believes that catering for schools and kindergartens is not an educational function; therefore it often becomes a big headache for the principals of educational institutions. In addition to the outdated and poorly managed catering services, the kitchens in most schools cannot work efficiently because they are equipped with old appliances. By winning the official tenders for catering services, without reducing the portion sizes or diminishing the quality of food, KRETINGOS MAISTAS helped a number of social organizations to save the sums equaling the salaries of the municipality employees hired for work in the kitchens. For example, while collaborating with KRETINGOS MAISTAS in 2008, the Municipality of Vilkaviškis managed to save 1 million Litas.
Mr. Norkus regrets that frequently the people are afraid of the alleged negative changes that would occur after hiring a professional catering company. "In order to maintain a leading position in the market, we continuously keep investing into quality and customer service. Otherwise, the results achieved during the eight years of hard work would just go to waste. We are proud to say that we have never received any serious warnings or notices from the administrative authorities", tells the CEO of the organization.
Last year KRETINGOS MAISTAS ended up with the 14 million Litas turnover in the last year, which meant a 41.1 percent increase in comparison with 2007 when the turnover was 9.9 million Litas. Currently the organization provides catering services to nearly 200 schools, kindergartens and other institutions which belong to 17 different municipalities of Lithuania.
Public Enterprise KRETINGOS MAISTAS has been in the public catering business since 2001. During the eight years of activity, the organization has catered for schools, kindergartens and hospitals of as many as 18 municipalities of the Republic of Lithuania. Currently the organization caters for nearly 200 educational institutions and other public catering objects. In 2008, the organization employed around 400 people.
