Each year, the Kitchen at St Margaret's engages a qualified nutritionist to assess our meals so that we can be sure we are providing good healthy food for our Members.
Our 2018 assessment was received this week (13 March 2018) and we are very pleased with the findings. The nutritionist summarises her report as follows:
"... your meal plan is innovative and well balanced, includes lots of quality meats and vegetables plus looks and tastes delicious. The meal plan meets the guidelines set out in the Ministry of Health 'New Zealand Eating and Activity Guidelines for Adults'.
Overall I was very impressed with the positive nutritional improvements you have made at the College. Deep fried food is kept to a minimum, portion sizes have been reduced for baking and desserts and the sugar content of fruit juice has been halved. Also I was impressed with the quality of ingredients being used such as extra virgin oil in salad dressings etc. Furthermore all your meals are made from scratch and use no heavily processed ingredients, which is to be commended. Soups, casseroles, meats and salads are all prepared/cooked on site using quality seasonal produce."
This is high praise indeed as we take great pride in providing a top quality food service for our Members. We are also always on the lookout to improve wherever possible.
The nutritionist also praised our Food Services staff led by Head Chef Bede Beaumont: "It is evident that you are passionate about your work at St Margaret's and that you really care about providing the best possible fuel for the residents. You are realistic about the eating behaviours and work around challenges to improves students' nutrition... I certainly hope students appreciate the beautiful selection of nutritional meals provided at the College and the quality service you and your staff provide."
(Story by the Master, Dr Charles Tustin)
