School food caterers and foodservice wholesalers are calling on the government to raise and ringfence school meal funding to address cost challenges and improve the quality of children’s diets.
LACA, the professional body representing members from across the school food sector, is urging for funding to be increased to £3.45 per meal to address the rising costs of food and labour, as well as to sustain the school meals service.
“Free school meal funding has increased by just 12% since 2013, while food inflation has risen by 32.5%," said Pete Statham, the head of sustainability at Sysco Europe, which owns school food supplier Brakes.
In April, the government said rates would rise by 3p in the 2025-26 academic year, from £2.58 to £2.61 per meal.
However, results from LACA’s ‘cost of living supply chain’ survey conducted across more than 5,869 schools, found that 78.3% of caterers believe a figure between £3 to £3.20 is more realistic for a two-course lunch.
Respondents who didn’t consider this to be realistic suggested a sum of £3.45.
This figure has been echoed by Bidfood business development controller for education and healthcare, Gavin Squires. He told The Grocer that when taking into account the Consumer Price Index, Retail Price Index, food inflation, and the rise in the national living wage, the foodservice wholesaler calculated that “the funding levels for the universal infant free school meal and benefited free school meal should be around £3.45-£3.50 per child per meal as a minimum".
The LACA survey also found that a majority (98.3%) of caterers agreed that school meal funds should be ringfenced.
Statham said that without funding being ringfenced, “many caterers receive significantly less than the allocated £2.58 per meal”.
“We know how hard school caterers work to provide high-quality, nutritious food for students, but without a significant increase in line with that suggested by LACA, it is unlikely that they will be able to continue to do so,” he added.
In June, the government unveiled plans to extend free school meals to more than 500,000 additional children from the start of the 2026 school year, a move welcomed by foodservice wholesalers.
It is also working with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, which were last revised in 2015.
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