Target - Christmas Edition Dec 22

December 2022

What a bumper Christmas edition we have for you! st Be

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Here's some of what's in...

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A TC Elf on the shelf?

Our very own Fire Fighter in TC!

Long Service Recognition Awards

Developing the Young Workforce and Young Person Guarantee

Job fairs

Festive Fundraising

Grapevine Hello everyone, ‘So this is Christmas and what have you done’, as the song goes. Well, if you're part of Tayside Contracts, the answer is quite a lot, based on the evidence in this bumper edition of Target. It’s even better than the Broons or Oor Wullie Christmas annuals (warning: nostalgic reference, please forgive me!)

‘Step into (the) Christmas (edition)’, and Yule be in for a real treat, with articles showing the incredible variety of our work in protecting and supporting our communities - alongside the magnificent progress we have made in helping people to come and work with us, particularly younger recruits.

And who can fail to be cheered by the genius and fun of the ‘elf on the shelf’ campaign, which is encouraging young people to choose our healthy, safe nutritious and delicious meals service. Thank you to all contributors to these articles - they are truly fantastic.

If you have a spare 10 minutes, another great showcase for your work can be seen in our Annual Performance Report, which was described by our Councillors as ‘really good’ (who am I to argue) at last month’s Joint Committee. So please click on the link and spend some time to enjoy the terrific achievements which you, your colleagues, and your teams, have made possible over the previous year. It’s a real Claus for celebration.

It’s been another tough year and I’m sure most of us are looking forward to a festive break. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone in Tayside Contracts who have performed so extraordinarily well under really difficult circumstances once again. It is so greatly appreciated. I will stop now before I become too ‘Santa-mental’.

And, as ever, at this time of year I’d also like to express my deepest gratitude to our people in Tayside Contracts who will have to work over the festive period to provide essential public services - including keeping our roads and footways clear, and providing meals for vulnerable people - whilst others are relaxing at home.

Finally, sorry for all the Christmas puns. Oh deer!!

I hope you have great Christmas, and I wish you all the best for 2023.

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Keith

Collace Quarry Retirements This year saw three employees at Collace retire. With a combined service of over 56 years their loyalty is unquestionable.

At the end of March two quarry operatives, Dougie White and David Wilson hung up their steel toe cap boots. Pictured below standing next to the ‘Exit’ door.

The end of July saw Quarry Manager John McCormick retire.

We wish them a long and happy retirement.

by Greg Campopiano

RIP - Ewan Stobbie Sadly, I write to let everyone know of the tragic passing of Ewan Stobbie in July of this year.

Ewan was a much valued and respected colleague within the Safety and Training team and will be very much missed by all his peers. Many of you will have met Ewan through attendance on the IOSH Manging Safely or Drivers CPC training courses or when he was assisting with risk assessments or safety concerns! It goes without saying that his professionalism, knowledge and expertise were respected and valued by all.

His support and mentorship towards his peers was outstanding and will be his lasting legacy for many.

By the Safety and Training Team

What have HR been up to lately?

by Suzanne Keay, Senior HR Business Partner & Rachael Lorimer, Assistant HR Adviser

Financial Wellbeing: We’ve added resources on Financial Wellbeing to the wellbeing page on our website which outlines a variety of local and national resources. These resources support our wellbeing strategy which outlines three key elements that we believe contribute to Employee Wellbeing, which are: Physical, Mental and Financial Wellbeing. If you’ve not taken a look at the resources yet, click here.

Job Fairs: Since June 2022, we’ve attended 12 recruitment events hosted by local employability teams across Tayside. By attending job fairs we’re increasing the publics awareness of Tayside Contracts and showcasing our organisation as a local employer of choice. Each job fair is a great way to inform individuals of current job opportunities, answer queries about our roles, the application process and finally to encourage applications. We look forward to being at future job fairs in 2023.

Suzanne left and Rachael right

Employee Testimonials: We have been out with our videographer capturing what working with Tayside Contacts means to colleagues across the organisation.

Have you seen the testimonials by Susan Wright, Cook in Charge at Bertha Park High School and Beata, Cleaner and Laundry Operative at Ruthvenfield Depot? If not, why not take a look at them here!

We were recently filming Frank Clark, Roadworker 5, Chris Stirling, Chargehand Roadworker and Iain Morrison, Assistant Project Agent on construction sites in Montrose and Finavon so look out for their screen debuts coming soon.

The employee testimonials are a great way to showcase talented colleagues and highlight that Tayside Contracts is a diverse employer due to our people, our jobs, our locations and our working patterns.

If you are interested in being part of a future employee testimonial, please email rachael.lorimer@tayside-contracts.co.uk . We’d love to hear from you!

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Collace Planning – Securing the Future of a Key Asset for the Next 30 years– Greg Greg Campopiano – Quarry Manager Collace Quarry is located in the Sidlaw hills between Dundee and Perth and is therefore well placed relative to the Council areas it serves.

The Sidlaws are of volcanic origin and the basalt rock was once molten and flowed from beneath the earths crust to the surface and cooled, some 400 million years ago. A Statistical Account of 1799 reports that “a quarry at the village of Collace was supposed for many years to have been exhausted, but workmen lately employed to explore it, found a bed of excellent freestone, and appearances indicate abundance of the same valuable article in other parts of the parish” Fast forward to 2022, we are still working the very same quarry once thought exhausted.

Well, it nearly is.

To increase the life at Collace, we will be applying for an extension. If successful this will increase our stone reserves by over 3 million tonnes, 30-year extra life, increasing the area of the quarry by 2.2ha.

The plan is to extend North, indicated by the red line in the picture. With a progressive restoration scheme in place, in 30 years’ time the quarry will an established wetland.

We shall be notified in the first half of 2023 if the application has been successful.

Josh Moore joined Tayside Contracts at the start of September as an Environmental and Quality Improvement Assistant within the Construction Business Improvement Team.

Josh graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a Masters Degree in Environmental Management. Prior to this, Josh completed a BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. This position is his first step on the career ladder, and he is excited to support Tayside Contracts in our efforts to save the planet.

During his spare time, he enjoys playing computer games, walking his dog, and baking.

Max Coburn joined the Procurement Team in October 2022 and has taken up the new post of Apprentice Assistant Procurement Officer which will run for a period of three years. This is supported by his attendance through Dundee and Angus College to complete his SVQ Procurement Level 3 qualification, which is tailored around the work activities which he will carry out in team.

Susie Newton, Training and Development Adviser quoted: “The introduction of this new post supports and celebrates our on-going commitment under the Young Person Guarantee Scheme to develop our workforce and support young people into education and employment. This is an exciting opportunity for both Max and Tayside Contracts, and I look forward to supporting him on this fantastic journey” Max has previously worked with organisations such as McDonalds, A.M. Phillips, and Tesco Call Centre. Outside of work he enjoys socialising with friends and family either in person or online, football, listening to music and going to gigs.

Be sure to introduce yourself to Max if you see him on your travels and I’m sure we all look forward to seeing him develop in this role and grow through this apprenticeship with Tayside Contracts. Go smash it Max!

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Festive Fundraising Fiona Armstrong and her daughter, Keira, participated in this years Dundee Santa Dash on 4 December. All fundraising is going to Dundee Bairns, which Fiona and Keira volunteered for during the summer and October school holidays, delivering meals all round Dundee.

Fiona and Keira would be so grateful if you could help support this cause by donating to their Just Giving page here. They know times are hard but even just £1 can help support this worthy cause.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to Leisure & Culture Dundee, so it's the most efficient way to give saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you!

by Fiona Armstrong, Clerical Assistant (HR Admin)

On the 8th December it was Christmas Jumper Day and as you can see below some of our colleagues in our offices got into the festive spirit and donned their Christmas jumpers for charity. This was in aid of Tay FM's Cash for Kids Mission Christmas.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined in and donated!

We have raised an amazing £243 and a sack full of presents to donate!

by Donna Butchart, Payroll Assistant

Cross Tay Link Road – Local Supplier, delivering for the Future Community Benefit The Cross Tay Link Road is one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken by Perth & Kinross Council.

It will involve the construction of a new 3-span bridge over the River Tay and a six kilometre stretch of new carriageway linking the A9 and the A93 to Blairgowrie and the A94, just north of Scone. It also includes the construction of two kilometres of realigned dual carriageway on the A9 just north of the Inveralmond Roundabout.

The project is being delivered by engineering and construction group BAM Nuttall.

We were successful in our bid to provide capping materials (dry stone) for the project. These form the foundation layers in the road construction. In May 2022 an order was placed for more than 200,000 tonnes.

At the time of writing, we have supplied over 95,000t. This is a great achievement for the everyone at the quarry, as this has been blasted, crushed, loaded, and ticketed in the last 6 months. Putting this into context, Collace averages 30,000 tonnes of capping sales per annum, so the pressure was on to supply.

I would personally like to thank all personnel involved directly in the successful delivery of this work.

Not only does this give a boost to the quarry income it has the added advantage of accelerating the development of the southern rock faces within Collace. These faces have the “Red” rock conglomerate, not suitable in asphalt products, perfect rock for capping material.

The supply will continue into 2023 as construction of this new road evolves.

New road is due to open in February 2025.

More information and updates from Perth and Kinross Council can be found at the following website: www.perthtransportfutures.co.uk

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Developing the Young Workforce and Young Person Guarantee

By Susie Newton, Training and Development Adviser

As you will have seen through our social media updates Tayside Contracts has been recognised as an approved Young Person’s Guarantee Employer.

The Young Person’s Guarantee (YPG) aims to connect every 16 – 24-year-old in Scotland to an opportunity. This could be a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training or volunteering. It could also be an enterprise opportunity.

The YPG is facilitated by our Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) project team consisting of

Gary Conway, Susie Newton, Scott Banks, Suzanne Keay and Rachael Lorimer.

The team have been working hard with colleagues in our Councils’ Education Services, Employability teams, and local further education providers, to make these links to support young people.

The team have also supported the DYW Tay Cities initiative where close contacts and working partnerships have been firmly formed and a commitment to working with 6 schools (2 per area) over the next year to focus on delivering their specific needs, so watch this space!

This recognition and progress captures the essence of our ‘Communities’ commitment set out in our Business Plan and demonstrates the promises we have made to our local young people including attendance at school Career Events, facilitating work placements, and increasing our apprenticeships such as the introduction in October of a new Apprentice Procurement opportunity.

We recognise the most important people in all of this are the young people, and hopefully we can make a positive difference to their lives, as well as building our workforce for the future.

We have now set up dedicated email account for all requests in developing the young workforce, should you wish to contact the team please email us at DYW@tayside-contracts.co.uk On behalf of the team, I want to thank every member of the project team for the hard work and commitment to date in getting us to “where we are now”, and I look forward to the exciting times ahead for Tayside Contracts, so keep posted for more updates.

Facilities Assistant Montrose Academy

One of our Angus Facilities Assistant, Gary Donald, recently received his 20-year Good Service & Conduct from Scottish Fire & Rescue.

As a young boy Garry lived next to the local Fire Station and was fascinated watching the fire engines going out to a call. He also loved to watch anything on the TV which involved Fire stations with London Burning being one of his favourites. Watching the fire engines going in and out, and the telly programmes, fuelled Garry’s desire to become a Firefighter when he grew up.

Garry trained to become a retained firefighter at Blackness Road in Dundee and after the training he was based at the Montrose Fire Station Unit, where has remained to this day.

His main aim was to help people and provide a service to the community. Gary loves being part of the Fire Service team in Montrose and believes it feels like a second family to him.

During the last twenty years Garry has gained many new skills during this time and is now a fully qualified driver.

In June 2022 Garry received recognition and was presented with his medal for Good Service & Good Conduct for 20 year’s service at the City Chambers in Dundee.

When I asked if he’s enjoyed his time as a Firefighter Gary always says it's lived up to his expectations as he always wanted to drive a fire engine!!

Well done Garry, you are a credit to yourself your family and community.

by Carolanne Torrie, Assistant Facilities Officer

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We are delighted to announce that the nomination forms for the Tayside Excellence Awards 2023 are now OPEN!

These awards are open to all employees (frontline and office based) who have worked for Tayside Contracts during the period January 2022 to January 2023.

Some of the construction work C27 Glen Prosen - Ongoing drainage works at the top of Glen Prosen to resolve longstanding flooding issues.

Drainage work at Brewland Bridge.

Footpath work in Castle Street, Forfar

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undertaken in and around the Angus area in 2022 Extensive surfacing from St Margaret's to Lunanhead

Bespoke signage produced and erected in Carnoustie.

Pristine Condition (Manual Handling) ''Let’s remember to brush our teeth” was the words my mum/dad told me every day, ensuring that my teeth as I grew up were going to last me and be healthy.

The reality is with technology these days if I hadn’t looked after them then I could invest my hard-earned cash in a buying a complete “Hollywood” smile to fix any issues! Can we say the same if we damage our back either because of poor movement in or out of work?

Pristine Condition manual handling training supports our current Manual Handling training strategy.

Those that have attended will know that Pristine Condition deliver a new type of manual handling training developed by Olympic Weightlifting athletes and derived from an indepth understanding of the mechanics of weightlifting which reduced pressure on the body when carrying out daily tasks. The training is specific to the workplace and tasks and was designed and supported by several memorable strap lines to aid understanding and ease of recollection e.g.

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Use Your Big Engines.

Turn Not Twist

Don’t DO your doughnut – keep the jam in!

Use Your Inside Base

Pristine Condition (Manual Handling) Look out for the posters around your work location that will remind you of the key messages based around the Pristine Condition training.

This year Michael from Pristine has delivered 12 days training seeing over 252 employees from a range of areas such as Roadworkers, Mechanics, Hub Supervisors/Cooks in Charge, Delivery/Stores, Facilities Assistants – these courses have been tailored around the work environment and delivered in schools, kitchens, and depot areas.

Feedback to date has again been positive with people citing the following comments: -

Changed my way of thinking about manual handling

Really enjoyable training with lots of hands of practical

Practical session with the ability to discuss different procedures

It is important that we all consider the safest way to complete work tasks/activities when working for Tayside Contracts, ensuring that we follow all the control measures in place. If you see anything that you have any concerns around with manual handling, then this should be reported to your line manager in the first instance, and you should never be asked or expected to carry out any tasks/activities that put you or your team at risk.

Let’s be safe when carrying out our tasks and look after our back as we would do our teeth!

By Susie Newton, Training and Development Adviser

On Tuesday 13th December we held our Long Service Recognition Awards for those employees who had reached 25 years service. This was held in the very impressive City Chambers of Dundee City Council. We were delighted to be joined by Provost Bill Campbell who kicked off the ceremony and presented each employee with their certificate and welldeserved £100 voucher. I'm sure there was some Christmas shopping straight after the ceremony.

Well done and thank you to each of you for your hard work and loyal service. We hope to see you again at your 40 years ceremony!

Thanks to the managers who attended to represent each employee: Dougie Mckay, Head of Operations Scott Banks, Works Manager Angus Gary Conway, Facilities Business Manager, Dundee John Bow, Facilities Business Manager, Angus, and Carol Haxton, Facilities Business Manager, P&K.

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Jill Bayne

Helen Craw

Robert Deuchar

Patricia Gallazzi

Jon Hazelton

Kevin McGregor

Sharon Muir

Edwin Murray

Helen Reid

Elaine Shaw

Shirley Simpson

Pauline Sherriff

Linda Smith

Charlie Wilson

Diane Wilson

Gillian Wylie

Caroline Rodrigues

Can you believe what the TC Elf has been getting up to in some of the schools in Tayside? Have a look and see the mischief it's been up to!

There was even a life-size TC Elf helping!

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Well, it looks like he likes the Tayside Contracts food!

We have had an amazing presence on all our social media platforms with #TCElfontheShelf and a great response from many of the schools across Tayside. A huge thanks goes to all the catering staff who have been keeping their eyes on what the Elf has been getting up to.

Ukrainian Taster Night

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On Wednesday 7th September Vivian Mills, Hub supervisor at Crieff Primary school, provided a taster night for Ukrainian children and their families who have recently started at the school and to help overcome the difficulties they were having with language barriers and a different food cultures. Vivian pulled out all the stops and with a lot of hard work and effort she hand-made translated food choice cards.

5 families attended the taster night, however it was very much appreciated by them and the children's teachers who also stayed to help explain the difficulties we were having trying to get the children to eat anything except rice or pasta.

It was also beneficial for us all to hear from the parents about the children's eating habits at home. Very plain foods i.e. boiled egg salads plain rice and pasta dishes. The Hub Supervisor, Vivian Mills explained how the school lunch menu works and they all took pictures of the plated menus as it is easier for the children and the parents to see the food and description instead of just the wording.

Vivian said It was lovely meeting the families and they all thanked the catering team for all the efforts in helping make them feel welcome.

Mr Stewart the deputy head also attended and was very impressed by the catering teams efforts, he took pictures and said the team had gone above and beyond and the translation cards we put up for each dish was very helpful. He tweeted, thanking Tayside Contracts.

Vivian and her team said it was very humbling and for any school having the same issues with these children eating at school I would recommend doing the same.

By Alison Sinclair – Catering Supervisor

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New Weighbridges in Arbroath, Dundee and Forfar Preparing for winter with the replacement of 3 weighbridges in our depots.

Photos show old one being removed and new one craned into position.

Throughout September, three new operator free weighbridges have been installed in Arbroath, Forfar and Dundee.

The new Shering weighbridges, all supplied and installed by specialists Precia Molen, replace end of life weighbridges at each site increasing reliability and thus availability, but also offering the facility to access weighbridge information “real time” remotely allowing management staff to carefully manage winter de-icing stock levels through Precia Molens truck flow software.

This facility is of huge benefit given all three sites are now shared with AMEY and allows shared stock utilised by both Tayside Contracts and AMEY to be correctly allocated to each end user.

Flood Trailers offer some cover Perth and Kinross has a history of flooding and Tayside Contracts workforce are the first line of defence in responding. The Road Maintenance Partnership have 5 large volume pumps that can be deployed as required, which were accompanied by open trailers carrying pipework and connections.

As these trailers reached their end of life a new specification of trailer was scoped out that would carry the pipework and connections under cover, thus minimising them perishing, and also carry floodsax and smaller pumps in a secure fashion.

It was recognised that we ask our roadworkers to deploy and tend these pumps principally in heavy rain and often for several hours, and then get back in vans with wet jackets etc. So when replacing the trailers we took the opportunity to ensure that the new ones would provide some shelter from the elements.

Whilst they are not designed to be mess units, they do provide shelter whilst monitoring the pumps, and someplace to hang wet clothing prior to getting back in the van to return to depot.

Our sign shop “wrapped” the trailers to showcase the Partnership attending and supporting the public when they most need us.

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‘Quarrying 101’. We take big rocks and make wee rocks. It sounds easy but the machinery required to carry out this process is vast. It is commonly known within the industry as crushing single size stone.

Production of single size aggregate, a key constituent in coated roadstone manufacturing, was historically undertaken through static crushing and screening plant.

The 30-year-old plant was becoming more uneconomical to run, increased maintenance costs and reduced output resulted in a high cost per tonne.

After a lengthy exercise it was concluded mobile crushing and screening would provide better value for money, reducing the cost of single size production.

Eagle Recycling were successful in winning the tender for providing this service.

For those not in the know, the plant consists of a primary jaw crusher, secondary cone crusher and 2 triple deck screens. Fed with an excavator working the blasted rock at the face, with a wheeled loading shovel destocking the final product.

By Greg Campopiano – Quarry Manager

Anyone for Tennis?...I mean Pickleball Broughty Ferry Esplanade was the latest location within Dundee to receive the Tayside Contracts Tennis Court treatment. Since 2013, in collaboration with Dundee City Council, over half a dozen courts within the City have received significant investment to bring them up to a standard as recognised by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the UKs Tennis governing body.

For the first time within the city, Pickleball was incorporated into the courts design to transform this facility into a dual function court.

The construction of these courts, which was undertaken by direct labour from the Dundee Roads Maintenance Partnership, included the upgrading of all playing surfaces, installation of security fencing and coded access gate, anti-slip court paint and lining and preparatory works for future flood light installation.

The courts, which opened on the 23rd of September, were not only given the seal of approval by Tennis Scotland, elected members and Dundee’s “In a Pickle” pickleball club, but also Tayside Contracts Managing Director, Keith MacNamara, who attended the opening and took the opportunity to inspect the works and practice his serve!

by John Curran – Dundee Road Maintenance Partnership Manager

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Whitehills Primary School Learning Cafe

By Sheryl McKiddie, Food and Nutrition Manager As a result of networking with Council colleagues in Education, the Food & Nutrition Team were invited to attend a series of Whitehills Primary School’s Learning Cafés, which are aimed at parents of pupils. The team had a stand at the first Learning Café on Friday 4th November and provided information for parents about school meals.

Other stands on the day included financial support information from Angus Council, Food Banks, re-used school clothing and one of the local churches offering information on their ‘Warm Space’ initiative to help with the cost-of-living crisis.

Pupils and teachers delivered presentations on what they had been learning in class and gave parents and guests a chance to participate in the learning. There was an opportunity for parents to grab ‘a cuppy’ and come and chat to the exhibitors. It was a great opportunity for the Food & Nutrition Team to engage with pupils and parents and to hear their opinions of school meals. It was very reassuring to hear so many compliments from children and their parents about school meals and what is on offer, and the children were very excited that it was ‘Fish Friday’ as they call it.

We look forward to supporting this excellent initiative by attending more Learning Cafes in the future.

Left to right: Sheryl McKiddie, F&N Manager and Nicole Hoskin, F&N Analyst

'Best Foot Forward'

By Norrie Scott, Menu Development Chef

I was delighted to be invited to take part in the ‘Family Cooking’ session held in the community centre kitchen on Thursday 3rd November 2022 as part of the ‘Best Foot Forward’ scheme which is a branch of the Dundee Healthy Weight Partnership, organised by the Head Teacher of Rosebank Primary School, Jennifer Heffel.

The brief was to deliver a session including a live cooking demonstration covering the preparation and cooking of fresh vegetables, provision of helpful hints on food waste, energy usage, cost effective cooking methods and time saving.

For the live cooking demonstration, I opted to demo the school meals’ tomato sauce recipe which is used in multiple dishes on the current menu, and which I thought would be useful. and would be enjoyed by most people, and which also meets the Scottish Government’s Nutritional Guidelines.

The ingredients are also readily available and are things that most people may have in their cupboards.

I started the demo by preparing the sauce and explaining that the tomato sauce can be batch cooked then frozen into suitable sized portions. Therefore, removing the need to make the sauce fresh each time a tomato sauce was required, resulting in saving on energy costs and time. I also explained that they can put the recipe ingredients into a slow cooker in the morning to be ready at teatime, which went down really well!

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Fresh vegetables, frozen vegetables, or a combination of both can be used when making the recipe, and by freezing any vegetables that need to be used up, these can then be used for a sauce or soup in the future which saves food waste. The sauce can be used as a base for a variety of recipes by adding additional protein items such as chicken pieces, meatballs, meat free items such as Quorn, vegetables or by adding herbs and spices to add another dimension. Whilst the sauce was cooking, I prepared fresh broccoli and carrots showing how quick and easy it is to include vegetables as part of the meal.

After the demonstration, there was a taster session with variations of the tomato sauce for the guests to sample such as chicken, chicken meatballs, meat free meatballs, Quorn mince, creamy tomato pasta along with boiled rice, pasta, broccoli florets and carrots.

The session feedback we received from Jennifer was great and we have been invited to attend another two sessions which we are very much looking forward to.

Robert Gordon University Visit

By Caitlyn Kydd, Food and Nutrition Analyst I started at Tayside Contracts as a Food and Nutrition Analyst in May 2022 after graduating with a Food, Nutrition and Human Health degree from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. After a few months of working in my new role, I was invited back to Robert Gordon University along with other external speakers to deliver a presentation about my working experience since graduating.

I presented to 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students (pictured right) taking the Food, Nutrition and Human Health course and gave them a background to Tayside Contracts, the Food and Nutrition Team and what is involved in the day-to-day job as a Food and Nutrition Analyst. The students were really interested in the adapted menu process and the number of different allergens that Tayside Contracts caters for to allow as many pupils as possible the opportunity to eat a tasty, healthy and nutritious meal every day.

It was great to go back to university and deliver this presentation to give students an insight into what they can do with their qualification and how my 4 years of studies were invaluable in equipping me to carry out such an important role in the ‘real world’!

Mill of Mains Primary School Visit

By Nicole Hoskin, Food and Nutrition Analyst On the 28th of September, Sheryl McKiddie, Nicole Hoskin and Norrie Scott, from Tayside Contracts’ Food and Nutrition team spent the morning at Mill of Mains Primary School in Dundee. During their visit, they did a presentation to pupils on the school meal regulations set out by the Scottish Government, which must be met by our healthy, balanced school lunch menus. After the presentations to the different age groups, the team stayed for lunch and enjoyed our very own cheese and tomato pizza with the pupils. They clearly enjoyed having us dine with them and telling us about their favourite sides with the pizza - which was definitely sweetcorn!

This opportunity allowed us to explain to the pupils why some of their favourite foods may not be available on the school lunch menu, and why some of their favourite menu items, like chips, cannot be served every day. The Food and Nutrition team is now full of ideas and suggestions from the pupils which will inform the development of the 2023/24 menu which will launch in April 2023. So, a big thank you to Mill of mains Primary School!

Have you read our Catering Newsletter?

School Meals Parent Information Newsletter Positive feedback: 'I just wanted to let you know that I think your recent newsletter is excellent. Clearly lots of research has been done surrounding food and nutrition. Teachings/language including ‘good’ or ‘healthy’ and ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’ options and age-appropriate explanations of eating in moderation and how certain foods help and fuel the body.

The visual menus are a fantastic idea and may help my child to look forward to picking her meals and encourage her to eat what she has chosen. It’s lovely that the research is being put into practise resulting in old beliefs and habits dying out. Ultimately resulting in a positive change and healthier children.

Thank you!'

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Why not click on the image above and have a wee read to find out about the 'journey of our beef burgers'? It's fascinating!