Feature: CH&CO education interview

CH&CO’s new managing director for education, Matt Brown, chats with Kimberley Montellier about his childhood dinner lady, his vision for the sector and serving the community – one plate at a time...

From ‘90s pizza and chips to the considered and nutritious meals available today, it’s fair to say that meals have changed – vastly – since most of us were at school. Everyone’s got a school dinners story from their halcyon days in the education system, and Matt Brown is no exception.

“I loved the food in school,” shares Matt nostalgically. “We had some fantastic dinner ladies that I still see in town as an adult. They were lovely – just like your mum or your auntie. They’d tell you off if you needed it, and I have to say occasionally I did! But then they’d also look after you.”

Since then he’s been no stranger to a school meal, having worked for eight years at Compass group in varying managing director roles, as well as a plethora of other gigs in the independent sector. Now, fresh into his new role at CH&CO, he’s really pleased to be back in the contract catering world.

“I love it and know it well, and I’m particularly pleased to be back in education,” says Matt, who’s now responsible for everything from grab-and-go to traditional plated meals for all CH&CO’s state and independent school contracts. “Obviously the independent sector is one I’m very familiar with, and for the state side I think there’s an opportunity to add some real value and make some positive contributions to society and the community. The opportunities are there for us to add some pizazz!”

Well, if it’s pizazz you’re after, look no further than the bunting, executive chef support and palpable excitement at a state school’s recent Chinese New Year concept day. Not only were two to three times as many main meals sold as usual but Matt – in attendance at the event – was able to see the sheer delight on pupils’ faces as they turned up. “A bunch of them were coming back saying ‘that was amazing’ and ‘thank you’,” shares Matt. “It was moving getting to see children engaging with the food, and clearly loving what it was and getting excited.”

That’s the kind of thing he’d like to be able to focus on and get behind, ideally running one per month instead of two per year. And, to assist with this, the way that CH&CO markets its offer will be changing. “At the moment sites are doing their own thing, but I’d like there to be more centralised options available that they can draw on, whether that’s for menus, marketing, events or chef development,” he says. “We’ve got a business with loads of capability and good ideas at the centre, we just need to become more effective at sharing that at site level.”

Chatting with Matt, it’s clear that he’s genuinely affected by not only the difference it makes to the pupils to have a nutritious, enjoyable meal, but equally by the next-level dedication and passion of his teams. “The levels of pure commitment that you hear from our people is quite astounding – people are going well above and beyond because of their desire to give children a great meal at least once a day. It’s quite humbling, actually.”

While going ‘above and beyond’ is highly commendable, Matt wants his teams to feel appreciated and supported, and doesn’t want their extra efforts to become a necessity or burden. “I want to better understand ‘the art of the possible’ – there’s got to be a better way,” he says. “We’re going to look at what we can bring into state from other areas of the business to increase efficiencies so people can work smarter not always harder and harder.”

With some caterers pulling out of education contracts and being selective as to which contracts they do bid for, food in state schools is very topical at the moment. “It tells a story about the challenges of the sector,” shares Matt. “You don’t get into the state sector to make lots of money – it’s driven by adding value to the community and the schools that you service – but you can’t afford to do it at a loss, either.

“Fundamentally there’s no getting away from the fact that plate cost becomes critically important, and I want us to know that we are optimising every opportunity to offer as good a quantity and quality of food for the plate costs – not much more than a pound – that we’re working to.”

Matt says the two key factors in this are making sure that as many as possible of the cohort that are entitled to a free school meal actually take that up, and secondly to get people who are purchasing school meals to buy into it. Not much comes for free these days, so intuitively you’d assume that free school meal uptake would already be at 100%. “This isn’t the case, likely due to habit and perception, so initiatives that can drive that up are critical,” says Matt. “And that’s not just for commercial reasons. If you’re able to take a free school meal it’s for a reason, so it’s about better supporting those families and children.”

To the independents
It would be easy to think that school meals play a more important role in state schools than independents. After all, many families with children in state schools increasingly are struggling to put food on the table, and so that one nutritious and enjoyable meal may fall to the responsibility of a school dinner. And yet independents, particularly those with boarders, command a great level of pastoral care.

“Imagine you’re an overseas student that lands in a boarding house – what you eat becomes incredibly important to create the right feeling of homeliness and security,” says Matt. “If you board and aren’t looking forward to your meals it becomes a massive issue, so it’s quite a caring aspect for us – and for me personally I would hate to think that there were children that didn’t like the food, or didn’t feel at home and food was a contributory factor.

“The other thing with independents is that almost universally food tends to be included in the fee structure. So if you’re a parent paying high fees, you want to feel that your children are enjoying what they eat, that it’s nutritionally balanced, and that they’re getting the right nourishment to flourish both educationally and in sporting terms. And that’s something you want to achieve in state schools as well.”

Much of this will be done via getting WITY, which is Matt’s new acronym, standing for ‘what’s important to you?’ With retention key for the education team, making sure clients know they’re special and that Matt and his teams understand their needs is crucial.

“We often assume we know what a client’s WITY is, but that’s very different to asking them and crystallising it,” says Matt. “Some will be challenged financially, others will be focused on quality and attracting new parents – it’s about being able to tailor our offer to their needs.”

Matt is also rolling out a system that objectively gives a flavour of how the team is performing against that WITY, by gathering client feedback.

So, what does WITY mean to Matt? Well, when it comes to his work, he has a three-pronged approach consisting of happy people, happy clients and building a solid reputation. “What’s important to me is to have happy people who are engaged in what they do and feel supported and valued,” says Matt. “I can see that we’ve got a lot of dedicated, hard-working people and I want them to understand that I don’t take that for granted and that we’re trying to support them as much as they’ve been supporting us.

“The second thing is for clients, for them to understand how important they are to us. They’re our life blood, so I want them to feel the love, that we’ve got their backs, and that we’re listening to them and not taking them for granted.

“And my third WITY is what we become known for in the industry, and the sector in particular. We want to become the supplier of choice, so that if tenders are published people want us to be tendering and want to work with us because they know what we deliver.”

And on a personal level? Married with two children and a dog, Matt says he is content so long as his family are healthy, happy and enjoying their food. “I don’t want much more than that!” he says. “When you get together, food is a massive common denominator, so for my children to have an appreciation of food and a healthy relationship with it is really important.”

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