Bosses at a York primary school plan to launch a commercial food takeaway business from its kitchens, delivering meals to local residents.
South Bank Multi Academy Trust, which has six schools in York, wants to launch the idea at Carr Junior School in Ostman Road in Acomb.
If the plans are approved, a company called Provenance Stores Limited will operate the kitchens in the evenings and at weekends. They say the business would be ‘community-focused, healthy, sustainable and supportive of employees’.
The Trust and Provenance say the move would bring in money to the school. Provenance would also provide free cookery classes for Carr Junior pupils, and provide apprenticeships for former pupils of the trust’s two secondary schools, Millthorpe and York High.
For every meal sold, Provenance will also pay for a school meal in one of the world’s poorer countries.
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Menus have not yet been drawn up, but the plans say they would prioritise healthy options and would use local ingredients where possible, and recyclable, reusable or biodegradable packaging.
They say meals will be delivered by moped or pedal bike, and all riders will be employees, with no zero-hours contracts.
Breakfasts and lunches
The business would operate from 6pm to 10pm on weekdays, but potentially all day at weekends, if there is local demand for breakfasts and lunches too.
Staff would only be on site when pupils were not, but would also be fully DBS checked. Provenance would also fund new alarms, to prevent people wrongly going from the kitchen into school areas.
The Trust and Provenance have submitted a planning application to City of York Council, as even though no building work is planned, the move is classed as a partial change of the buildings’ use.
Carr Junior has two kitchens, one of which is used for the everyday school meals, and one of which is used less often, for cookery classes and demonstrations. Provenance would use both, but primarily the latter, and would use the school canteen as a packing area, with thorough cleans at the end of each shift ahead of the school use the next day.
Planning agents nineteen47, on behalf of the Trust and Provenance, say: “The proposed development does not seek to impact upon the use of the facilities by the school, but rather seeks to make use of the school facilities at times when they are not required or needed. This will deliver significant benefits to the school.”
The planning application can be viewed on the council website here.