Canteen competition: calling all TEAPOT 1s

Does your police force still have a canteen or some form of mobile catering service and if so how would you rate what is on offer? Enter the draw and win a prize.

Most officers of a certain age will remember the ‘999 breakfast’ special served at most police force canteens which were open around the clock to feed a hungry work force that works day and night.

With station closures and austerity these facilities have declined significantly over the last 10 years but a few police forces still provide some form of hot catering to their officers while there appears to be an emerging cottage industry of officers/volunteers who provide tailor made food and beverage offerings to their shifts.

So whether it is a canteen, a well stocked kitchen/catering facility provided off the cuff or a mobile catering service provided by the force/others for public order serials or at big events we want you to describe and rate for us the very best of what is on offer in your area.

Police Oracle will provide the top five entries with a £50 voucher for Uber Eats/Deliveroo. Please send your entries to Editorial@policeoracle.com and then click here to enter the draw.

Entrants should provide a detailed description of what’s on offer and why they think it deserves a mention.

Police Oracle has done some quick research of its own into the police canteen landscape and it is a very mixed picture.

The Met have (or at least used to have) a mobile catering unit called TEAPOT 1, The meals-on-wheels vehicle brings much needed cuppas and other refreshments to officers attending a prolonged incident.

Humberside offered its officers canteens and gyms as part of the effort some years ago to retain staff and turn the force’s struggling performance around.

A spokesman for the force said:  “Our officers and staff work hard every single day to ensure that the communities we serve are safe. It is important that as an organisation we are doing everything we can to support their wellbeing, both physically and mentally.

“Here at Humberside Police we have five canteens across the force area, all offering a variety of nutritious hot meals as well as a range of cold sandwiches, snacks, fruit and a salad bar.

“There are also four free gyms at stations across the region, all of which offer round the clock fitness equipment as well as dedicated personal training sessions focussing on physical health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing. This is a service which I am incredibly proud of as it undoubtedly helps to ensure that our teams are fit and healthy.

Outside of a few forces like Humberside there are some local initiatives to allow officers some space for refreshment breaks and catering facilities. A reader from Police Scotland has reported that most stations in his division has a working kitchen and the “little things matter” initiative found small pots of money for each station to request welfare purchases. His station now has a new hob, coffee machine and Airfryer.

Anecdotally the picture elsewhere was more bleak. One officer said: “At best, we have a tiny kitchen which has only just been fitted with a water boiler for hot drinks, that has just replaced tw0 old kettles that hadn’t been PAT-tested since 2014. We used to have a refs room before it got converted into yet more office space, but nobody used it. So it is Drive Throughs, eating sarnies at a desk, or just don’t eat on duty.”

Believe it or not academics are conducting research into the effect of the loss of police canteens which have been referred to as “repair shops” because of the social benefits of having a shared meeting space where officers can talk about the stresses and strains of the job while refuelling at the end (or middle) of a shift.

A study led by Dr Carina O’Reilly (University of Lincoln), Nick Kealey (Liverpool John Moores University) and Dr Sean Bell (Open University) is looking at how the provision of rest spaces has changed, and the impact on police officers and their wellbeing

They say: “Changes to policing over the last 10-15 years mean officers are more and more isolated. Many forces stagger duty times, meaning officers may parade for duty or finish their shift in twos or threes, or even alone. Handheld devices and laptops have reduced the need to return to the station at all.

“Increased operational demands mean refreshment breaks are curtailed and are rarely timed to allow officers to come together. With the gradual disappearance of police canteens and other shared spaces, those who do have a base are less likely to leave their office and take proper breaks.

“The term ‘canteen culture’ comes with a lot of baggage, and is often used as shorthand for problematic police cultures that facilitate unethical behaviour.

“There has been little public discussion about the way that these spaces might in fact support police wellbeing – and how that in turn might improve officer morale and lead to better policing.”

The stories and experiences shared in police canteens were first referred to as the “repair shop of policing”  by the late Professor ‘Tank’ Waddington, an academic and policing expert who wrote a weekly column in Police Review magazine.

He said that they allowed officers to cope with their role and the isolated circumstances they can often find themselves in. Canteens or other bespoke catering facilities may be dying out but Police Oracle hopes that by publicising the remaining ‘good practice’ in forces out there, we can preserve them for a little bit longer.

Once again to tell us those stories and enter the prize draw go to the link below.

Category: Wellbeing