West Middlesex University Hospital restaurant receives national award for serving fresh and local produce

Catering staff at West Middlesex University Hospital have been celebrating after being awarded the Soil Association’s Food for Life Catering Mark Bronze Award last week, in recognition of their new and improved menus using fresh and locally sourced food.

West Middlesex’s Rumbles Restaurant is part of an exciting nationwide initiative led by catering providers ISS Facilities Services Healthcare to improve food in hospital retail outlets and this award assures visitors, staff and outpatients eating in the restaurant that the food served is healthy, sustainable and produced by fully trained staff on site with fresh ingredients.

To achieve the Catering Mark, the catering team have made changes to their menus, worked with suppliers and are now sourcing fresh produce and preparing more meals from scratch on site.

Catering Manager Tom Dolphin said: “The Catering Mark means our visitors have access to nutritious food – food we know far more about in terms of where it is sourced, and we are sharing this with our customers. We have increased the amount of local food on offer in Rumbles Restaurant which is going down well with visitors and staff alike.”

Sudheer Dara, Chef Manager, shared his delight: “I highly appreciate my catering team who have collectively supported the process of exchanging our ingredients with those certified to the Soil Association standards. Every one of us felt that these changes would raise the standard of food we offer and give us greater job satisfaction. I feel that the quality is much better now and this is reflected in the excellent feedback that we have received. As a team we are very proud that we have achieved Bronze Award and I am already looking ahead to achieving Silver!”