Make it a healthy pit stop

At the Pitstop Café’s recent healthyliving award assessment, they managed to re-achieve the award for a second term and, according to their assessor, Mary Crustier, did so with flare and gusto.

Mary told us that, in this small community café, ‘the catering delivers the award criteria with flair and imagination’ Mary explained ‘the café were very busy on the day I visited and it is clearly very popular locally. They are continuing to develop the healthy eating theme and Eve, the Catering Supervisor, has enormous commitment to carry it through.’
                               
The Pitstop Café is a social enterprise that is based within the Pennypit Centre in Prestonpans. It was set up in 2009, and offers work-based training opportunities to young adults with additional support needs. The students work with up to four trainers per day on increasing their confidence in the learning of transferable skills within a catering environment. They also assist the trainees in moving into paid employment in a mainstream workplace after successful completion of their training.

Eve Smith is the catering supervisor at the café. Eve started working at the centre four years ago as a youth worker before taking the position of café assistant and now supervisor. Eve’s role is varied and very much hands on. It involves working with the trainees and delivering training modules, such as food preparation, as well as managing the café and all that entails. You will see her doing everything from organising the outside catering order to cleaning tables, and operating the till.

Eve has been keen to maintain and build on the momentum of the first healthyliving award the café achieved in 2011. She has introduced many new items to the menu, including many healthier choices, such as fruit pots, homemade soups and wraps.
With Eve’s enthusiasm for the award she is perfectly placed to ensure the five trainees are given the right guidance about the award; they know which are the healthier items on the menu and why. She wants to ensure that their customers are informed of the healthier menu items.

Eve explained: ‘We have such a diverse customer base, ranging from young mums with babies who attend the breastfeeding group, to knitting groups and walking clubs, as well as local residents. We explain to customers what the healthier choices are, but we are also making smaller changes across the menu, which means those who aren’t choosing the healthier items are still benefiting. [For example] we offer a grilled cooked breakfast and you can opt for a poached egg instead of fried.’

Eve continued: ‘We have seen a benefit to holding the award. Customers give us good feedback and are more often looking for salads, fruit pots and brown rolls.’

If you are near Prestonpans and need to refuel, we recommend you have your pit stop at The Pitstop.

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