Shir Ben Catering

Shir Ben Catering is a leading institutional catering company, providing about 30,000 nutritious and delicious meals daily to the dining rooms of companies, organizations and education institutes throughout Israel. Most of the meals are prepared in the modern and advanced central kitchen, which was established in Be’er Sheva four years ago. This kitchen operates around the clock, employs 80 people and spreads over an area of 3,500sq.m. It was built at the highest technological level in order to maintain the food’s quality, and is Israel’s leading institutional kitchen from the quality assurance aspect.

The company also operates numerous kitchens inside institutions and organizations, with dining rooms that feed thousands of people daily. Amongst the company’s prominent clients are Israel Police, Israel Aerospace Industries,
numerous IDF bases, nursing homes, high-tech companies and more.

In addition, a separate department of Shir Ben provides luxurious catering services for private weddings and festivities throughout Israel.

The company is Kosher-certified by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, with constant supervision in its kitchen facilities, and is also able to provide other types of Kosher-certifications in accordance with the client’s demand.

Service and Quality

The company was founded in 1996 by Yoram Ohayon, in order to provide meals for workers who worked for his brother, a construction contractor. Within a single year, demand for his meals grew from 1,000 daily portions to 7,000 daily portions, as a result of purely word-of-mouth recommendations.

From the very first day, Ohayon emphasized food quality, employee empowerment and development and customer service. “The company’s incredible expansion is a result of a very clear and consistent vision. In the same way we deeply care about growing our employees and promoting them to managerial positions, it is also important for us to constantly evolve and be an organization that offers a diverse service offering - from the operation of dining rooms for thousands of people to serving field festivities in difficult terrains” Ohayon explains.

In order to guarantee high-quality, healthy meals that the diners would enjoy, Shir Ben’s Chefs take care to integrate all of the essential food groups into the menu, and use only fresh raw materials with a broad variety of fruits and vegetables and minimal use of oil.

In addition to the regular, balanced and healthy menus, the company’s nutritionists have the know-how to provide solutions for any special request, such as low-fat and low-sodium menus, at the client’s request.

The company also carefully maintains very strict safety measures, including ongoing supervision by a food technologist, employee training in food safety topics, refrigerated transport of the food with refrigerator trucks and more.

The issue of employees’ rights is also very important to Ohayon, and he believes that no compromises must be made concerning manpower. The company invests extensive resources in its human capital while operating employee incentives programs and encouragement of excellent service.

The Institutional Sector

About 85% of the company’s operations are focused on the institutional market, with tens of thousands of workers, soldiers, residents and students across Israel enjoying Ben Shir’s delicious, nutritious and diversified meals. These meals are served in dining rooms in workplaces and other institutes.

Some of the company’s larger customers are The IDF, The Ministry of Defense, nursing home chains, boarding schools of the Amit network, the IEC, Egged, Pelephone, BGU, the Be’er Sheva municipality and more.

For many of the customers, Shir Ben operates an on-site kitchen facility next to the dining room, with a comprehensive management of the entire feeding organization of that institute. This includes employment of the kitchen and dining room personnel, supplies, meal preparation and ongoing maintenance of the facility. For example, in the military base “HaKirya” in Tel Aviv, the company employs 30 employees and serves 8,000 portions per day. Another example is the company’s kitchen in the IEC’s offices - a thousand daily rations.

In cases where the number of meals is lower or there is no on-site kitchen, the company prepares fresh and nutritious meals in the central kitchen in Be`er Sheva and delivers them through its fleet of 12 refrigerator trucks to customers across Israel. Every day, Shir Ben’s professional cooks prepare thousands of meals in the company’s modern central kitchen, with care to provide a diverse and healthy menu under the supervision of nutritionist. The modern kitchen enables quality assurance at the highest level and prevention of contamination.

Amongst the customers that receive meals from the central kitchen on a daily basis are numerous IDF bases, schools, IEC facilities and more. In addition, the company provides combat rations and packed meals for the IDF.

Since the commencement of Shir Ben’s operations in operation kitchens and providing meals for the military about five years ago, the food quality in the bases improved considerably and the soldiers now enjoy healthy and tasty food.

The company is flexible and able to provide solutions for unique customer requirements. It works in close cooperation with customers and their appointed nutritionists to guarantee full satisfaction every day.

The Private Sector

The company has a separate department which provides high-quality catering services for the private market, including events such as weddings, Aufruf, Brit, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, birthdays and more. The guests enjoy the high quality of the raw materials, the careful design, and the impressive and professional food presentation, with an emphasis on a contemporary and accurate menu. The company provides solutions for events of any type and magnitude anywhere in Israel, be it an upscale banquet hall or outdoors. Prices range between 180-350 NIS per ration, in accordance with the menu that was selected and agreed with the customer.

Additionally, the company operates an upscale banquet hall in Be’er Sheva, “Marcelle Venue”, where numerous events of various types are held, with Shir Ben’s high-quality catering.