This Saturday morning, June 22, exceptionally, due to the open days at the Central Kitchen, the employees of Sodexo, delegate of the Aurillac town hall, are busy in the kitchen around a giant truffade: 50 kilos of fresh tome are mixed with some 300 kg of potatoes, previously peeled and cooked. An XXL truffade then divided into portions, packaged in metal trays, labeled then distributed according to their recipients, in this case the nine nursery and primary schools and the CCAS of the Geraldine city.
1,500 meals/day
During the school term, the 12.5 FTEs making up the Central Kitchen team prepare no fewer than 1,500 meals every day, according to strict specifications imposed by the municipality as part of this public service delegation. The latter thus provides for 27% organic products, a threshold that Sodexo has exceeded as evidenced by the very recent Ecocert audit (dated June 17) which assessed this ratio at 32.5%. “With a high percentage of local organic products,” emphasizes Christophe Defretas, regional manager of Sodexo. Before adding that organic or conventional, a third of the kitchen supplies are made with local products, namely from Cantal and neighboring departments: yogurts from the Ferme de Bassignac and the Ferme de la Maison rouge in Vitrac (read below), vegetables from the Ferme des Hirondelles (Lafeuillade-en-Vézie) and Sylvain Croutes (Labesserette), cheeses from Énilv d’Aurillac, meats supplied by the P’A Cantal platform and by the Mas company, bread from Llinarès…
A third of local products
“Overall, we manage to find what we need here, except of course fruits like bananas, or even peas or beans in winter… but at the very least, everything is from France,” explains Christophe Defretas during of visiting the site. The producers with whom Sodexo works do not benefit from contracts but are referenced and solicited according to the needs and the frequency of their products planned in the 20-day cycle established by Sodexo in conjunction with the municipality and the school menu commissions. . “We try to get everyone to work, this is the message we convey in the annual renegotiations we have with the town hall, explaining that there is a whole section of the local economy that works with us and which we are keen to support,” explains the manager when asked about taking into account the increase in producer costs.
The last few years have been marked by a slight drop in school canteen attendance linked to the rise of teleworking, by the introduction of the weekly vegetarian menu, but also by significant awareness-raising and educational work around healthy eating, reducing food waste and recycling waste, particularly during Tap (after-school activity time). Biowaste and green waste (peelings, etc.) from Sodexo are collected by the nearby Theil company to feed the composter and methane digester (in Brive).
Vegetarian menu still shunned
Regarding the vegetarian menu, Christophe Defretas believes that the formula could still be improved given the increased amount of waste on these days: “Some people consider that pasta with tomato sauce is a vegetarian dish, but it lacks a protein intake, which is why we are working on slightly more complex recipes with vegetable protein intake: split peas, lentils and other dried vegetables…”, which still make young consumers frown. “They are not used to it and visually, it is not the prettiest, he admits. Here, they are very “meat-loving” but I was amazed to see that they taste everything even if there is still a little waste (34 g on average per meal).” Although local, the Bleu d’Auvergne also struggles to seduce the palates of the little Aurillacois, hence the work in progress with Énilv on recipes making this blue-veined pasta more delicious. Every day, the children from the nine school canteens served take part in the game of “C’est mon goût” by giving a rating to the dishes on the daily menu.
The “tops and flops” in the children’s vote
For three years, it has reached 3.4 out of 4, well above the Sodexo national average. This daily survey also makes it possible to establish “the tops and flops” of the cycle and to develop the recipes for the following cycles accordingly with the support of an in-house dietician, knowing that an independent dietician checks the balance of the menus and the correct frequency of appearance of different types of food. Each month also an independent laboratory takes random samples from the products, surfaces and equipment used and for each meal, control dishes must be kept for seven days by Sodexo, made available to the Regional Health Agency in the event of problems. sanitary facilities.
Aware of the image of “industrial cuisine”, which sticks to Sodexo, Christophe Defretas, in office for two years, and the Aurillac team led by Nicolas Asfaux are keen to show another reality.
