Spotlight on NHFT's award-winning Catering Service
This week, we are shining a light on our Hotel Services and Facilities teams, including the brilliant colleagues in our award-winning Catering Service.
Passionate about food, innovation, and continuous learning, our Catering Service team is dedicated to making a difference every day. From creating nutritious meals for patients to driving sustainability initiatives and supporting each other's development, they play a vital role across Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT).
What's it like to work in the Catering Service at NHFT?
Joanne Fitzgerald, Hotel Services Manager, explains what makes the service such a special place to work:
"The culture at NHFT's Catering Service is built on passion, curiosity, and a shared commitment to doing the very best for our patients.
"At the heart of everything we do are our patients. Food is far more than nutrition in healthcare; it is comfort, dignity, and a vital part of recovery. Our ambition has always been to provide the very best patient food experience while also creating a service that is sustainable, creative, and constantly evolving.
"One of our greatest strengths has been empowering our teams with initiatives, such as, the Chef Academy. We encourage our chefs to be curious, to experiment, and to bring forward ideas that might have seemed impossible. We have created an environment where every idea is welcomed, and where innovation is celebrated.
"When I go out to visit our teams, I can see that our colleagues are excited about making a difference to patients and staff."
Watch this short video to meet some of our colleagues and hear why they enjoy their roles, how they're encouraging healthier eating, and how they're working together to improve patient experiences.
Making a difference every day
NHFT's Hotel Services and Facilities teams work across eight sites and include over 300 colleagues working in domestic cleaning, portering, laundry, catering and reception services. Together, they provide essential support that helps NHS services run smoothly every day.
The Catering Service alone serves around 945 meals to patients every day, while six Café Vie venues offer freshly prepared food and drinks to patients, visitors and staff.
Although relatively small in size, the team has a big impact on the experiences of patients and colleagues across the Trust.
Investing in people
A key factor behind the Catering Service's success is its commitment to supporting colleagues' growth and development.
The service runs a progression programme designed to help colleagues develop their skills and advance their careers. The results speak for themselves, with 80% of participants progressing into more advanced roles.
Regular Chef Academy training days give staff the opportunity to learn directly from professional chefs, explore new techniques and get inspiration for creating innovative, high-quality dishes. These sessions encourage creativity and help colleagues bring fresh ideas into their kitchens, ensuring our food is nutritious, appealing and thoughtfully prepared.
Creativity, sustainability and reducing waste
The Catering Service is always looking for new ways to improve sustainability while encouraging creativity.
One popular initiative is the team's food waste awareness days, where colleagues are challenged to create dishes using ingredients that might otherwise be thrown away. We've had colleagues taking off cuts of cauliflower to make delicious onion bhajis, which we sold at the cafes.
The team has even developed its own wastage cookbook, showcasing recipes that transform surplus ingredients into delicious, high-quality meals.
This approach reflects the service's commitment to sustainability, innovation and making the most of available resources.
Award-winning service
The team's dedication and innovation recently received national recognition when NHFT became the first NHS Trust in the UK to achieve the Soil Association's Gold Food for Life Award. Joanne said:
"As the Catering Team at NHFT, we were absolutely delighted and incredibly proud to receive the Soil Association's Gold Food for Life Award in August 2025.
"We are the first Trust in the UK to achieve the Gold Food for Life Award.
"Our Catering Teams worked incredibly hard to go from the Bronze Award to the Gold in just eight months.
"The award means so much because it recognises the dedication and hard work of our teams, who have gone above and beyond to make a difference to patient experience and work towards a greener, more sustainable future by using organic foods."
Have you visited Cafe Vie?
Members of the public, patients, visitors and colleagues are all welcome to visit any of our Café Vie sites. Each one offers freshly prepared, nutritious meals where everyone can enjoy a healthy meal for less than £5.
Our hospital sites all have a Cafe Vie. They are open 8am to 3pm, Monday to Friday offering breakfast, lunch and hot meal options for all visitors.
You can find cafes at these locations:
Berrywood Hospital
Brackley Community Hospital
Isebrook Hospital
St Mary's Hospital
Danetre Hospital
Cynthia Spencer Hospice
Thank you to our Catering Service colleagues
The Catering Service's success is built on the dedication, passion and creativity of its colleagues. Every day, they provide comfort through food, support patient recovery and help create positive experiences for everyone who visits NHFT.
Joanne concludes:
"We are proud of what we have achieved together. Yet the most exciting part of our story is that we are still learning, still pushing boundaries, and still striving to deliver the very best for the patients we serve."
Our Hotel Services and Facilities teams include our Domestic and Portering Service. Read about the incredible colleagues in our Domestic and Portering Service.