Free hot drinks and toast or a cereal bar are being offered to all 16,000 staff across both hospitals as well as a subsidised hot meal for £1.50.
Jim Richardson and Ronnie Parrett-Harris talked to the pupils about their careers in hospital catering as part of a project designed to show youngsters the wide range of careers available to them i
The 14 attendees were served steamplicity meals, which uses an ‘innovative’ cooking system to cook fresh and raw ingredients in minutes.
The Royal Free London is one of only 20 trusts nationally to have joined the NHS exemplary trusts programme and hospital food network.
There are still some places to attend the next session, which will take place at The Orange Kitchen Cookery School on Thursday 29 September 2022.
It is estimated that estates and facilities services make up around 8% of NHS staffing but they are often overlooked and undervalued within the work environment.
Ruaraidh Mackintosh, patient catering manager at NHS Grampian, said: “We put on a Queen’s Jubilee menu which we do each time there is a large royal event.
The catering and facilities management firm, which already runs the contract at the children’s hospital, successfully bid for a tender that is worth up to £5 million throughout its duration.
The money made from the sales of the coffee will then be pumped into local communities to help reduce levels of homelessness.
The £1.1m contract will run for 18 months and sees Sodexo deliver patient dining as well as hospitality and staff dining at the 55-bed Nuffield Health Hospital, which opened on 3 May.