Declan O’Toole, the company’s director, said that the school meals had already been prepared when the closure of all the schools in Dorset was announced.
When interviewed by BBC South Today on Friday 18 February 2022, he said: “We got a notification very late yesterday afternoon [Thursday 17 February] that all the schools were closing at which point we had made all the meals.
“Today [Friday 18 February] we were going to be providing fishfingers and chicken korma, jacket potatoes, mixed vegetables and all of that now is here and we are looking for homes for it.”
O’Toole added: “Come and get it… So if any local charities needing food for this weekend, which may be a difficult time for lots of people, literally come and get it and take it away.
“Last time when the very heavy snow was around we were able to get rid of nearly all our food to local charities: homeless, YMCA and so on. So we are hopeful to do the same today because if it doesn’t go then we have to just put it in the bin and that would be a terrible waste.”
Forerunner Personal Catering started by posting on their social media channels about their situation. They made sure they tagged relevant charities as well as the local media channels to help spread the word.
O’Toole said it was important that the food was shared with charities to help feed vulnerable people and to avoid unnecessary food waste. He believes that all school food suppliers should be doing it when finding themselves in a similar situation as they have already received the money for the food.
All the food was picked up by 3pm on Friday by charities including Hope for Food as well as individual families who were struggling with the high cost of living. Once everyone had collected the food they wanted, the last 15kg for mixed vegetables was picked up by someone to feed their chickens.
O’Toole said that he wanted to collaborate with LACA, the school food people, to put together a guide to help school caterers facing a similar situation to feed vulnerable families and avoid food waste.