I joined Aramark at King’s University College in July 2023 as the Executive chef. At that time there was no staff working as there were no students on sight. I was not familiar with any Aramark Health & Safety training initiatives, and I assumed that they wouldn’t amount to much. I was wrong.

In September when the students returned so did the staff. We are lucky to have a strong core group of employees here with 10, 20, and 30 years of service with Aramark. When we began the new school year, we started having our daily huddles at 9am and reviewing the Weekly Safe Brief (at King’s we take 4 days to cover the Weekly Brief). Our 9am meetings allowed for the greatest number of people to join without disrupting staff prep time. When we first started it was like what I imagine a lot of unit’s experience, information flowing in one direction. I spoke and the staff listened. As we all began to feel more comfortable together the staff start opening and sharing their stories and their experiences, we even had Evan Messersmith, Aramark District Manager share a story one morning. Those stories led to conversations, and those conversations led to everyone really looking closely at our unit and how we worked within our unit.

We have experienced lots of insights since September such as:

• Most staff thought that a fire blanket was for them to wrap themselves with in case of a fire. This was an interesting point that was easily corrected by watching a video online showing how to properly use a fire blanket. What also came from talking about fire blankets was that our fire blanket, as far as the staff could remember, had never been replaced. Which meant that it could have been on the wall for 30 years. This was another interesting point that was easily fixed by purchasing a new one.
• We identified a risk with our fire evacuation route, and with help from King’s Physical Plant Manager, we will look to have our fire evacuation route changed for next September to minimize the risk of staff being injured if there is a real fire on site.
• Allergen training was very insight full. Some staff shared, for the first time, their own allergic rection stories. It was surprising to see how many people had never shared such personal information with their colleagues. This led to a discussion about how not knowing that someone is allergic can cause big problems.
• The one point we always return, because it is one of the biggest points made in the Weekly Safe Brief, is temperatures. We are always talking about delivery temperature, fridge and freezer temperatures, cold holding temperatures, hot holding temperatures, cooking, cooling, reheating temperatures, danger zone temperatures, maximum fridge temperatures, minimum hot holding temperatures. We talk temperatures all the time. And what is interesting, no matter how much we walk temperatures the staff still forget.
• The Weekly Safe Brief sheets allow me and the staff to have meaningful conversations. When questions start being asked, and answers start coming forward, you quickly see where more information is required to clarify peoples understanding.
• Sometimes, when we only see the day-to-day goings on in our units, we can forget that things really are improving through simple things like taking 5 – 10 minutes a day to discuss in more details the points within the Weekly Safe Brief. Our morning meetings seem to always begin and end the same way: the staff slowly and begrudgingly make their way (in their own time) to our huddle location; a few staff like to start talking and things take a minute to settle down. When their ready I start reading from the script, and as I do I start asking questions along the way, somethings to specific people and sometimes in general. This is when the meeting starts to take shape, the staff start to engage, and information and ideas start being shared. Before you know it 10 minutes have pasted, and the group are all talking and discussing why it’s important (or not) to use Celsius or Fahrenheit on their record sheets. For my part I wish it was all Celsius.
• Our safety success story at King’s is our daily commitment to show up at 9am each day. The Weekly Safe Brief, for us, is more than just reading from a script, it is a dedicated time each day for us to come together, learn from each other’s experiences, see our day-to-day role in a slightly different way, and most importantly, to have a few laughs. The staff here at King’s are without a doubt, fully invested in all areas of health and safety in their workplace. You can never go over the same health and safety points too many times.