Meal Innovations
Update
Techlink is sad to note that Meal Innovations ceased operation in February 2008. The loss of this company is a loss to New Zealand education, as reflected in the following article from the February 2008 issue of t-news.
Jobs go as food packer closes
On 25 January 2008, 30 staff at the Meal Innovations factory in Palmerston North were given three weeks' notice. Just another New Zealand manufacturing casualty you might think – but this one was a bit closer to home and hit a bit harder.
Meal Innovations is a Palmerston North based food-processing company which was set up in 1998, following the demise of Hester Guy Foods earlier that year. The factory supplied ready-made packaged food and salads to supermarkets.
Meal Innovations' production and distribution practice was featured in a Techlink 'Enterprise Links' case study for which the management were very generous with their time. The response to the case study has been extremely positive and it is obviously proving useful to many teachers and groups of students. Meal Innovations also hosted a number of visits to the production facility by groups of teachers and students.
Unfortunately, it appears that the loss of one large customer proved critical to the viability of the Meal Innovations operation and it is this that will force its closure this month.
There is a strong message here for technology teachers and technology educators as we work to link classroom practice with the range and diversity of Technological Practice in the community: the high level of goodwill towards teachers and students within their local community of such businesses should never be taken for granted or the input they can provide undervalued. When we link with the community, take time to celebrate the success achieved and acknowledge the significance of the time commitment it inevitably involves on the part of the enterprises.
We thank management and staff at Meal Innovations for their willingness to share their expertise, and wish them every success in their future employment.
