HAMPSHIRE County Council’s have scooped four awards for their catering service.

Work of the HCC's Catering Service, HC3S, to produce high quality dishes for residents, has been recognised with four prestigious, national award wins.

The County Council won Education Caterer of the Year by demonstrating innovation, good value and performance throughout the year and the Innovation award for introducing a public Facebook page as an integral part of their customer strategy and a staff Facebook group at the Foodservice Cateys awards.

They also won a Marketing Award for their work to improve pupils perception of fish and encouraging more children to eat fish at the EDUcatering Excellence Awards.

The County Council also won Primary School Caterer of the Year at the EDUcatering awards with Jinny Cardew at Portway Junior School, for providing standards and a service that takes her expertise of school catering to a new level.

HCC’s Executive Member for Commercial Strategy, Councillor Stephen Reid, said: “It is fantastic to see HC3S winning these latest awards for excellence and innovation amongst other categories, surpassing competition from public and private sector organisations.”

Cllr Reid added: “These wins are particularly welcome in HC3S’s 30th anniversary year, and continue to underpin the service’s reputation for working with farmers and suppliers to source high quality, fresh and sustainable ingredients to produce nutritious, flavoursome meals which are good value for money, for Hampshire residents.

“Many congratulations go to the entire HC3S team – their commitment, skills and expertise, shine through at moments like these.”

Over the last three decades, HC3S has evolved into an award-winning service with 1800 staff catering to schools, country parks, libraries and visitor attractions - serving 75,000 meals across more than 500 sites each day.