Cater Care’s Response to COVID-19

The health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, clients and customers is our greatest priority.

Since its early stages of proliferation, Cater Care has been monitoring the potential risks of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and have reviewed all of our procedures in line with World Health Organization (WHO) updates.

Cater Care’s Executive Team are receiving daily updates from our technical specialists on the potential risks to staff, consumers, clients and food safety. These specialists are guided by the WHO, Federal and State Health Departments and the International Food Safety Network.

Cater Care have taken a coordinated approach in our response to this situation. Some key actions we have put in place include:

• Observance of social distancing rules within communal areas at site. This has been facilitated through extended and staggered meal times, dining room seating spaced out greater than 1.5m, and limited numbers of customers at key service points
• The introduction of pre-plated and package meals where requested or appropriate
• Distribution to all staff of standard work instructions for cleaning and sanitation to coincide with enhanced sanitation of dining room, servery and communal areas

The ongoing communication with our front line teams also remains a priority for us. We have supported our front line teams with regular updates regarding COVID-19. These communications include: a specific COVID-19 toolbox talk, FAQ’s document, posters to display at sites/offices, a sanitation alert and prevention and outbreak management protocol refreshers. We have also set up a dedicated Cater Care internal help desk for COVID-19 related questions and queries coming from our teams across the country which is monitored on a full time basis.

Our Procurement team continues to work closely with suppliers and are in daily dialogue with these suppliers to ensure continuation of supply of food and commodities. We are monitoring the situation closely in regards to stock levels across all of our suppliers. The key recommendation is still to continue with existing buying patterns and avoid panic buying.

These are very uncertain times indeed but our commitment to our clients, our team, customers and residents is that we will continue to make the necessary adjustments to our business with our core values of Care, Pride and Community top of mind.

For the most up to date and accurate information regarding COVID-19, we recommend the following sources:

The World Health Organization
Australian Capital Territory Department of Health
New South Wales Department of Health
Northern Territory Department of Health
South Australian Department of Health
Queensland Department of Health
Tasmanian Department of Health
Victorian Department of Health
Western Australian Department of Health