Last updated 13:35, Friday, 22 August 2008

A HARRINGTON catering company has promised to put an end to traditional hospital food after taking over the canteen at Workington’s Community Hospital.

NEW FOOD: Matt Parslow and Sandra Robson, new caterers at Workington Community Hospital

The Corner Pantry, on Church Road, has been awarded the contract to run the canteen for the next three years, to the delight of owner Matt Parslow.

He said: “This is an exciting time for us and we are really looking forward to taking over.

“We will not be producing the kind of food you normally associate with hospitals.

“We will be doing the same pasties, sausage rolls and sandwiches that we do in our shop.

“We will also be doing hot meals as we are aware that a lot of older people go to the hospital for their dinner and we want them to enjoy what they are eating.

“We will produce festive foods and do traditional tatie pots and hot soups.”

Matt, 39, will be working with his partner and girlfriend Sandra Robson, 39, and the pair take over the canteen from September 1.

Matt said: “We now produce all our food ourselves.

“It will be a big test for us but we know we are more than capable of doing the job.

“Over the last few years we have gone from strength to strength and we hope that will continue.”

The couple were awarded the contract after responding to an advertisement in the Times & Star in June.

Matt said: “We thought about it and we realised that we could do a good job and went for it.”

Matt took over the Harrington bakery - formerly Pat-A-Cake - last year after about four years working from a mobile food van, called Matt’s Lunch Box, on Derwent Howe, Workington.

He is originally from Weston-super-Mare and, after training at catering college in Inverness, he worked in hotels in England and Scotland before moving to Silloth in 2002 to be near his parents who had retired to the town. His mum is originally from Braithwaite, near Keswick.