Pouring love into every meal.
We support schools, parents and pupils in the city of Southampton with delicious, nutritious and high quality school meals - all year round.
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Food for Life accredited meals
We create tasty school lunch menus that comply with two crucial standards: the Government’s School Food Plan, and the Soil Association Food For Life Bronze caterer award. By opening our kitchens to the Soil Association’s inspection team each year, we confirm our commitment to using honest, local, seasonal produce.
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Trained and dedicated cooks
Our kitchen teams are the beating heart of our organisation. Our Head of Kitchens are trained and experienced cooks, who know how to run an effective school kitchen that produces quality food. We love that they showcase their skills and culinary flair in the meals they serve every day. We are always on the lookout for more people to join our team!
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Taking care with special diets
Special diets are a growing requirement of any catering business. We generate hundreds of bespoke menus for pupils with allergies and medical needs, twice per year, whether they’re allergic to one of the 14 main allergens, or have a more complex dietary need. Families are encouraged to speak to their school office to see how we can safely support pupils.
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Supporting those who need it
Whether its via our Lunch Crowd service serving free, hot meals at partner-led holiday activities, or through our free Cooking at Home service - we support those who need it. More families and households are at risk of food poverty and insecurity, and we strike to support food relief and long-term sustainable support, where possible.
We are delighted with the range and quality of the food, but also the service and genuine kindness of the staff.
James Habberbly, Head of School at St George Catholic College
More information about school food
Accessing School Meals
There are three main ways to access school meals:
Free School Meals are available for some pupils, depending on household income. You can apply direct online here, discover more in our blog or talk to your school office for more information.
Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) are available to all pupils in Year R, Year 1 and Year 2 regardless of circumstances.
Paid meals are available for pupils who are unable to benefit from the above two schemes. Pupils simply choose school meals in the morning, and your school will organise payment with you direct.
Whichever route to school meals a pupil takes - the same high quality, nutritious lunch is offered. Explore your school menu today, and download the Lunchero app to see what’s on the menu!
We are delighted to have worked with you and your team in providing additional meals to our parents and carers.
Vermont School
We believe that everyone has a right to access good food.
As a charity, we are committed to doing more than serving term-time meals and we advocate for greater access to school food, improved support for families and households in need, reduced food insecurity, nutrition and cooking education and adequate holiday provision amongst many more issues that impact those we serve in our local community.
We are supporters of the Children’s Right 2 Food and #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign and regularly raise these issues with our schools, community partners and local Councils and MPs to keep the conversation alive for Southampton and Hampshire families.
Discover more about how we go further, below and sign up to our mailing list to keep up to date.
Support us to do more #FoodForGood and explore how you can get involved.
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Lunch Crowd - school meals in the holidays
Our Lunch Crowd initiative sees us support free-to-attend holidays clubs by serving nutritious school meals during the school holidays. Whether its supporting the Southampton Holiday Activities and Food programme, or our community partners like Make Lunch, Saints Foundation, Active Me 360 - we are passionate about holiday provision.
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Cooking at Home - recipe, ingredients and cooking support
Our Cooking at Home project has two elements; free online recipes and cooking tips for all, together with recipe-led grocery boxes for families and households at risk of food insecurity, empowering healthy home cooking. Supporting over 30 local schools and 800+ families, we are reliant on fundraising to keep our scheme running.
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Working with community partners on food insecurity
We set up a Holiday Provision Steering Group - a network of organisations, individuals and councillors in the local area to raise the profile of the topic of food insecurity, and aid community partnership working to increase and improve opportunities for support for local households. We always welcome new voices, to help support community work.
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Representing Southampton nationally, and in Parliament
We are proud of be members of the APPG School Food network, bringing together national voices on a range of topics linked to school food and childhood nutrition. We regularly attend meetings, mutually sharing and learning to ensure that we are advocating for our schools and their communities.
