Emergency Kitchen for Elland Day Nursery

Elland Day Nursery, between Huddersfield and Halifax in West Yorkshire, employs eleven staff and has 46 children on its books.

When staff went to open up on a cold friday in January, they found flames raging inside the business’ larger building. After swift work from the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service, the building was saved, but not without significant damage.

Owner Janeen Turner-Barrow knew that working parents would soon have to make new arrangements for childcare, and once they had them, they were unlikely to return.

She took advice from her insurance company, and realised a temporary kitchen and dining room in the car park next to the nursery could solve her problems. She checked out PKL online, picked up the phone and was delighted with the service she received.

“Andrea was my contact and she was just fab,” she said. “She communicated brilliantly and held my hand through the process of picking the right temporary kitchen and dining room for us.”

In just a few days the kitchen was installed on site and the nursery was open again in just over a week. Thanks to PKL’s kitchen and dining facility, hard work from the Elland Nursery Staff and generosity and patience from parents, the nursery’s shut down only resulted in two children leaving.

The kitchen remained in place for the next six months, as workmen repaired and renovated the damaged building, and the children lived a little adventure going out to a new dining room each day!

Janeen credits the kitchen and dining room from PKL with saving the business from closure.

“If we had closed for the entire time the refurbishment was due to take I think that would have been it,” she said. “We have a great relationship with our parents, but they have to have dependable childcare in place, and they would have had to find something else. The kitchen and dining room has allowed us to keep going. It was obviously a bit different to what we had before, but the staff have adapted very well and it’s been pretty straightforward in the end.”