Emergency Temporary Kitchen Facility at Saracens High School

Built in 2018, Saracens High School serves the local community of Edgeware, London, and welcomes over 900 pupils aged 11-16, with the sixth form centre opening in September of this year. Linked with Saracens Sports Club and working closely with the Saracens Foundation, their mission is to provide students a clear pathway to higher education and career success.

With nearly 50% of all pupils being eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), Saracens High School has created a unique lunchtime offering called ‘family lunch’ ensuring pupils get a hot and nutritious meal every day. Family lunch involves the pupils sitting together at lunchtime with one pupil responsible for getting the hot lunch for the whole table and serving it, another pupil responsible for getting the dessert for the whole table and serving it, and then working as a team to clear that table once finished, promoting their core values of discipline, hard work, honesty, and humility.

This all came to a halt at the end of May when Vice Principal, Sonia Green, received a phone call on a Saturday evening letting her know that the fire alarms had been triggered due to a kitchen fire, fortunately contained within the kitchen area and not spreading further.

With the imperative task of feeding nearly 1,000 pupils on the Monday following the fire incident, the school’s staff and catering team swiftly devised a solution and collaborated to prepare packed lunches using a makeshift kitchen. Throughout this time, Sonia had contacted PKL to start the process of getting a temporary facility up and running as soon as possible, and within only a few weeks, PKL delivered and installed a 4-bay temporary kitchen facility with ramp access to Saracens meaning they were able to continue serving their normal, nutritious, family lunch.

Sonia commented, “It was a real relief when PKL had the kitchen set up. It’s been really smooth and they’ve supported us to make sure that we stick to the values that we have of ensuring that we have a family lunch”.

Sonia went on to say, “As soon as the kitchen was up and running, you wouldn’t have known there had been any changes – everybody is really happy to have the hot meals again and has commented on how smooth it’s been, so we’re just really grateful that everything has been up and running as soon as possible”.