At City Catering Southampton, we believe that access to good food is a right and not a privilege.

Therefore, we exist to make a tangible nutritional difference in people's lives. We do this through serving School Food Plan and Food for Life compliant meals in 40 of Southampton's schools. We are supported by a team of approximately 250 employees, and a small volunteer team who specifically support some of our charitable initiatives. Together, we stand by our moto of #FoodForGood.

As advocates for access to good food, we are acutely aware of the challenges many face in the school holidays where the risks of food poverty increases. As a result, we work hard to support the increasing need for holiday provision for our Member schools. Our Lunch Crowd initiative sees us opening up school kitchens to serve family meals to those most in need, for free, supporting community or charity run clubs. For this service to run, we are reliant solely on funding, grants and donations. Alongside this, in 2019 we launched and now facilitate a Holiday Provision Steering Group to bring together likeminded charities, organisations and individuals in order to improve and facilitate food and activity holiday provision for the local community. 

In 2020, we enhanced our Lunch Crowd initiative in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and introduced our Cooking at Home with City Catering program that invites anyone and everyone to get inspired, gain confidence and explore more cooking from scratch to empower people to access good, affordable and simple home cooking. Together with our Lunch Crowd initiative and with huge thanks to fundraising, in the school holidays we supply those families in attendance to clubs with the necessary ingredients to enable them to get the full benefit out of the program.