London Heathrow Airport is running a free meal scheme for its staff, with the help of contract catering partner Eurest.
The airport wanted to offer every colleague on site access to a free daily meal and a hot drink to keep them well fed during the UK’s ongoing cost of living crisis.
Eurest, the on-site contract caterer for Heathrow, was able to turn around the entire operation in only four weeks. In doing so, it tackled significant logistical challenges, including re-opening workplace restaurants that had been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tom Bonner, contract director at Eurest, said: “We’re proud to say that, thanks to the hard work of so many people, we rose to that challenge. No solution was ever going to be simple. We have more than 100 different clients across the airport and needed to reach them all while maintaining speed of service. But we developed an app-based voucher solution which has proved hugely popular.”
Heathrow’s 6,000 colleagues can now access two daily vouchers on their app, one for food and one for a hot drink, which can be used at any time during their shift. More than 241,000 vouchers have been redeemed so far.
Fraser Brown, Heathrow’s retail director, said: “I am extremely grateful for our partners at Eurest for helping us to roll out free hot meals for every Heathrow Airport colleague during their working day, as a temporary cost of living measure this winter.
“The scheme has seen 93% of Heathrow colleagues take up the offer as part of a range of support procedures. Without Eurest’s cooperation this would not have been possible.”
Eurest brought in food vans to ensure every part of the airport was served and even created a special menu for the on-site fire station, delivering raw ingredients for firefighters to cook for themselves.
Image: London Heathrow Airport
