T£€NONOMIC$
May 6th 2014
page 4
RENDONOMICS
School meals; a pound land bargain
How can school meals
be so cheap? (And why
do they never look
like the photos?)
doubt that
There’s no in house caRendcomb's
tering provides a great
range of food. This leaves
many people to wonder,
how the school can feed
each of us for as little as a
pound a meal, and still
maintain its ‘Eat right,
stay bright’ policy.
What is the economics
behind this? Well its all
down to simple economies of scale. This is
where as a firm, in this
case the school, grows in
size its average cost per
unit produced is reduced.
For the school, as more
Source 1
With over 500 students
to feed, almost 1/3 of
which require 3 meals a
day, it brings great benefits to have stronger purchasing power. This allows the school to bulk
buy ingredients and cut
Source: Rendcomb college catering down wholesale prices.
With a weekly budget
students go to lunch it
being spent 23% fruit and
becomes cheaper for
veg, 27% fresh meat and
them to produce each
fish, 16% dairy and the
meal. As the graph
rest on bread and dry
(source 1) shows there is goods, a bargaining posian increased output from tion on the fresh ingrediQ2 to Q1, in turn reducents, which make up such
ing the average costs to
a large proportion of the
Ac1. These cost savings
budget, is certainly a key
come in all sorts of forms element of the costs.
from purchasing, techOnce the raw goods arnical (reducing wastage
rive however, it’s down to
and increasing efficiency the in-house catering
through new equipment
staff to do what they do
for mass produced scales) best, making a delicious
and finally specialisation meal for a yummy price.
(staff members can
specialise in different
areas of the kitchen e.g.
washing up, main course
& cake) all increasing the
kitchen’s efficiency.
Source: Mirror online