Collaboration on the menu at catering managers working group meeting

Catering managers from the Gippsland region recently took the opportunity to tour the Monash Health Central Production Kitchen as part of their quarterly working group.

The Gippsland Catering Working Group meets each quarter to share information and ideas with members of HSV’s Customer Engagement and Procurement team. The group includes 14 catering managers from 10 health services across the Gippsland region.

HSV’s Customer Engagement team established the group over 5 years ago.

“The working group was set up to provide a network for education and information sharing between the region’s catering teams and establish a direct line between catering managers and HSV’s category managers to share industry updates,” says HSV Senior Customer Relationship Manager Emma Hammond.

“Regional catering managers really appreciate the opportunity to connect with each other and HSV. Coming together face to face helps the group share solutions to challenges. They can also learn from each other where there may be value-based deals and work with HSV on cost saving initiatives,” Emma says.

Forums like the working group also provide HSV’s Procurement category managers with a direct line to information about changes in purchasing behaviour they can use to add value for health services.

“The catering managers told us that dieticians have been increasingly requesting texture modified foods, so our category managers have added more texture modified food options to our collective agreements, which benefits both the patients who consume the foods and health services who get access to a higher quality product at the best value,” Emma says.

“The two-way flow of information means the health services can also hear directly from the category manager about planning for supply issues, such as updates on the response to the ongoing egg shortage.”

Executive Chef - Food Services Team Leader, Bairnsdale Regional Health Service Laura Akkerman is part of the working group and appreciates the networking and learning opportunities provided by HSV.

“I value in-person connections – they really help us understand each other and build trust. It’s encouraging to see that despite our different sizes we face similar challenges and have comparable systems. The shared knowledge and practical improvements we’re implementing are really making a difference,” Laura says.

The highlight of the meeting was a tour of the Monash Health Central Production Kitchen (CPK) led by Peter Fischer, the CPK Production Manager. The kitchen serves most mandated Melbourne metropolitan health services and is the largest health service central production kitchen in Victoria. The CPK team prepares 10,000 meals a day across 3 kitchens – the main kitchen in the Kingston Centre, an adjacent kitchen that produces 3,000 frozen meals a day and a third kitchen at Moorabbin Hospital making allergen-free meals. Roast chicken is the most popular meal. 

Even though the Monash facility is larger than regional kitchens, the catering managers discovered that they all had similar experiences including expanding their reach to new facilities and an increase in catering for aged-care (including preparing meals for Meals on Wheels providers). The tour sparked the sharing of information between the metro and regional kitchens and gave the visitors some good ideas to take back to their own kitchens.

“The Monash kitchen tour was fascinating, especially seeing how Monash handles texture-modified diets and special dietary requirements. The tour emphasised the value of sharing best practices,” Laura says.

The group will meet again in the new year to continue their successful collaboration.

Above image: HSV Category Manager Jessica Johns, HSV Customer Relationship Manager Catriona Cameron, HSV Senior Customer Relationship Manager Emma Hammond, CPK Production Manager Peter Fischer, Executive Chef Bairnsdale Regional Health Service Laura Akkerman and Central Gippsland Health Manager Food Services, Natalie Scott.