Food

With our pupils’ active and energetic lifestyles, food at Marlborough is the healthy fuel on which we run. Our skilful catering team is responsible for producing diverse and interesting menus across breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week, as well as delivering catering to support the wide range of events the College hosts. The team is led by our Catering Manager, whose philosophy is ‘good, seasonal food, freshly produced and sourced locally.’ As a result, our pupils enjoy some fantastic dishes, their dining is supporting local suppliers and the quality of produce is second to none. Our approach also means that the College is minimising its food miles, which is an important part of reducing our overall environmental footprint.

Within the school environment, the catering team is a department that our pupils interact with three times a day, fuelling their minds for the classroom and their bodies for the sports field. Pupils in our in-houses and the day house have all of their meals in Norwood Hall, our main refectory, which was designed by the architect David Wyn Roberts and built in 1959, whilst those in the out-houses have breakfast and four suppers a week served in their house following the same menu as Norwood Hall.

Meals and Menus

A range of cooked and continental choices is available for breakfast. For lunch, pupils and staff can choose from a wide selection of hot main dishes, a salad bar, a plated salad of the day, hot snacks, a pasta bar, fruit and desserts. Supper follows the same pattern but with an additional choice of soups for a starter. The team prepares all dishes in the College kitchens and all special diets are catered for, safe in the knowledge that ingredients are sourced by the team and are therefore fully traceable.

Food Forum

Our pupils play a key role in the College’s Food Forum, which meets regularly each half-term to provide constructive feedback and make suggestions on the menus. Each of our houses has a pupil representative on the Food Forum who canvasses the views of their house before each meeting. Actions can be agreed there and then as the Food Forum is attended by the Second Master, Bursar and Catering Manager. Many positive things have come out of the Food Forum, including a redesign of our vegetarian menu, and our catering team enjoys the regular feedback, which enables them to create innovative and nutritious menus with something for everyone.