Please send questions about the venue to registrar@autscape.org
These are the venue information notes relating to food and drink.
Bar
There will be a bar in the Orchard Centre in the evening on the ground floor (8pm to 10:30pm). There will be fruit juice and alcoholic drinks. Baked crisps can be bought there also. The bar can only take cash. The closest bank machine is a ten minute walk away. are bank machines in the town within a ten minute walk.
House kitchenettes
The house kitchenettes are called names like 'Brew Room' or 'Praes Room'. They will have basic tea and coffee available.
The venue provide cow milk for the house fridges. They ask that if you need other alternatives you bring your own. Please label it. Some boarding houses have more than one area to make a hot drink.
The venue will put some complimentary biscuits into the main hot drink area in the houses. If they are not in the one you are using they are probably in another. Ask your house leader or the registration desk if you need help finding them. These are just ordinary biscuits. If you need specialist biscuits to consume at your accommodation please bring your own.
Registration Centre (Orchard Centre)
There will be a table here where you can make a hot drink. The range of tea and coffee is slightly larger than that available at the boarding houses. There may also be squash.
Morning and afternoon coffee
The drop in centre will have a similar selection of tea and filtered coffee along with squash.
At morning and afternoon break times there will be biscuits in the drop in centre. This selection will include gluten free options. On the last afternoon there will be homemade cake and gluten free cake.
Meals
The venue ask that we don’t all arrive at once for meals. This causes too long a queue.
If you find queuing difficult and there is a queue when you arrive you can sit down at your table and go back up when the queue has stopped.
The dining room gets very crowded if everyone is eating at once. We have extra long dining times so that some people can come at the start of the service and have left before others arrive.
Sometimes it may appear there is only one left of an item. Don’t panic. Often the venue display one so you can see what it looks like but keep the rest inside the serving area so they stay hot.
No nuts are used in the Tonbridge kitchen and there will be no onion in any food.
If you need to know the exact ingredients in a dish, ask the person serving. The venue will keep all the labels from bought in products for this purpose.
The venue staff will be in the dining hall during meals and will sit at a table space they find free. You don't have to chat with them. They are not expecting that. If you do, remember they are relaxing on their lunch break and it is not the time for adding to their todo list. Bring your venue issues to the registration desk.
There will be organisers on duty during meal times. Please only disturb them if you need help with a meal related matter. We have organisers on duty at this time so the venue staff know they can ask us to assist where needed. Like the venue staff the organisers are eating their meal and prefer to relax. Questions not related to the meal should wait until afterwards unless its an emergency.
Drinks available at mealtimes
There will be tea (also green tea and peppermint tea), filtered coffee, squash and water. There will also be milk and some milk alternatives.
They cannot provide A2 or goats milk and ask that if you want these please bring your own.
You are allowed to bring your own teabags to the dining room.
Special Diets at mealtimes
If you have a special diet tell the serving staff your name. They can look up your diet needs. If the available dish isn’t suitable for you they will give you the dish they have prepared for you.
Gluten Free: There is a table with gluten free alternatives. Open a packet, take what you need and close the packet again as best you can.
Dairy Free: There are a variety of milk alternatives available.
Breakfast
There will be cold and hot options at breakfast. The hot options are different each day. Porridge is available on request. Let the chef know if you need it made with cow's milk, dairy free milk or water.
There will be non dairy and dairy yoghurts.
In addition to the drinks listed above there will be apple juice and orange juice.
Lunch and dinner
There will be two counters serving hot food. One will have a plain version of the dish and one the normal.
There will always be jacket potatoes or Gluten Free pasta available as an alternative at these meals.
There will be a salad bar. It will comprise of a meat platter and individual dishes of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, sweetcorn, grated carrot, lettuce, brown rice, cous cous and beetroot. There will be a range of oils and dressings on top of the salad bar serving unit.
There will be a fruit basket and sliced fruits on individual plate.
There will be dairy and non dairy yoghurts.
At lunch for dessert there are yoghurts (soya and milk) and a wide variety of fruit.
At dinner for dessert there will be fruit, yoghurts and also a sweet dessert.
Sports Centre
There is a vending machine in the sports centre. There is also a small cafe there which is open in the evenings. It is not open during the mornings or afternoons.