As well as our permanent contracts, we are also able to offer short-term cover to nurseries who usually deal with their catering in-house but find themselves in a situation where their cook, or other staff involved in food preparation, are absent and they need a quick, easy, short-term solution to covering mealtimes. This is something that we are seeing more of at the moment due to COVID with nursery staff being unwell, self-isolating or caring responsibilities at home. If you are not currently a client and you are in need of temporary meal provision, please feel free to give our Client Services team a call or drop us an email (details below), as we may be able to help.

The most unique aspect of our service is just how easy it is. Once we have confirmed that we deliver to your area, we provide you with a log-in for our online ordering system, ZOO (Zebedees Online Ordering) and you simply need to enter how many standard meals you require each day plus any cultural and/or dietary meals.

Our food arrives each morning  in  catering tins, transported inside special thermoport boxes that keep our meals hot until lunchtime. You simply remove the lids, check and record the temperature using a thermometer provided by us, dish up and serve. That is all there is to it. No need for any equipment such as freezers or ovens. Our delivery is very compact and the boxes are stackable and easy to store.

We collect the empty boxes when we deliver the following day. Our deliveries are currently contactless, with exchange of boxes taking place at the door, meaning our drivers do not need to enter your premises. As we provide complete, cooked meals, we also save nursery staff time on other areas of their meal provision, such as meal planning and shopping. You can also order from us the exact number of meals you need each day, cutting down on wastage.

Our menus our nutritionally analysed and we follow the Eat Better Start Better guidelines, so you can rest assured that we provide healthy food, tailormade for the under 5s. Our lunch menus run on a 3 weekly cycle and can be viewed here. We can also supply optional extras such as afternoon teas, fruit, veg and salad boxes and frozen baby purees.

If you think we may be able to help or you would like more information regarding temporary cover please call our Client Services Team on 01323 811307 or email clientservices@zebedees.co.uk