Food and Nutrition

Chartwells Independent provides the meals for your children at Cargilfield School.

A bit about us

We are proud of the fact that we were the first to bring an outsourced catering service to independent schools and work hard to understand and share the ethos of every school we support, and to become part of its culture. We treat every child as an important individual.

• Our food is cooked on site by professionally trained chefs, and with the exception of some unavoidable products such as ice cream, frozen peas and sweetcorn, our menus feature fresh ingredients.

• Our menus operate on a seasonal three week menu cycle and they are planned specifically for each of our schools so that we can accommodate the age range and local preferences. We are always open to suggestions so if you or your children have a particular favourite you would like us to produce please do get in touch!

• There is always a choice and pupils are encouraged to take as much fruit, salad, bread, potatoes and vegetables as they need to satisfy their appetites. Chilled water is available throughout service.

• We work very closely with our company nutritionists to ensure the choices that we offer, and methods of cooking combine to offer healthy nutritious options. Examples include

• We only use rapeseed oil in cooking

• Wholemeal bread is available throughout every service

• No more than 50% of our composite salads contain fat/oil based dressings

• Freshly chopped fruit is available every day.

• Our nutritionists analyse and approve every ingredient. For example no artificial sweeteners and trans – fats are used. Additives are monitored in line with the Children’s Hyperactive Support Group.

• We have a fully traceable supply chain and therefore only authorise suppliers who have met the highest sourcing and procurement standards.

• We use a combination of local and national suppliers and all their produce arrives at the school in one vehicle – which reduces our carbon footprint and gives smaller suppliers and producers access to our business.