Trinity College Cambridge was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 when he combined existing colleges and seven hostels to form what has now become this world famous British educational institution.

It was an absolute privilege and pleasure to be able to visit this majestic place back in early September of this year. The college today is home to around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates and over 180 fellows from all over the world, studying in buildings steeped in history. 

As with everywhere else, Cambridge Trinity has also been affected by Covid-19. The College has continued to live and operate in line with all the regular changing government guidelines. Indeed, the catering department recently contacted us when they were advised that students were not going to be able to mingle and share the serving facilities in the same fashion that they had previously enjoyed.

The servery area would have to become a one-way operating system in order to maintain social distancing and of course face coverings would always be worn, along with hand sanitiser being made readily available. Hot food would be served from behind perspex screens, but one of the most important points of concern was the transfer of food from kitchen to living quarters in the event of students having to self-isolate under Coronavirus protocols. The catering team were already using some hand pulled turntable trucks around the university for general moving of boxes. They had been previously supplied by us and were already fitted with two long sides of a ‘lift off removeable’ design, so perfectly suitable for food delivery. Students meals still needed to be transported to the various households if any of the students were required to self-isolate. Trinity were keen to look at our suggestion of transforming those existing trucks by adapting them with a bespoke covering. The cover would need to be shower proof to protect against the elements as staff moved the truck between the kitchen area to all the various delivery points where students could eat their meals in a Covid-safe environment.

The covers needed to be very hardwearing, showerproof and to have one side removeable, so that staff could easily access the trucks removable sides before loading meals and sealing them securely prior to transportation across the facility.

Details and measurements were taken on site by our sales representative and we then moved on to look at the most suitable material to use for this application. We recommended a 600-denier cloth which is the same material used on most ruck sacks, fitted with an eyelet in each corner which would enable the cover to be tied securely. The opening long side would also have heavy duty Velcro strips fitted to allow easy staff access for loading and unloading of meals. We also suggested the printing of The Trinity College logo on a PVC patch to both sides which creates a nice stylish finish and endears itself to the university.

The end result was that the customer could still use existing equipment but with a simple conversion can now provide meals safely to student quarters in a professional and stylish manner.

If you need help covering a product, anything from turntable trucks to roll cages or pallets, we can have you ‘covered’ in double quick time.

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