This month, two have closed their doors. CaterEd in Plymouth and Twelve15 in Surrey have both stepped away, leaving thousands of children and hundreds of staff affected, and schools now working out who will feed their pupils from September.

Why school food providers are being pushed to the edge

These closures are not a sign of poor management. They are the result of years spent absorbing rising costs while still trying to keep children fed well and fairly. Food inflation, energy costs, minimum wage increases, London Living Wage increases and National Insurance have all risen, while funding for school meals has not kept pace.

The impact reaches far beyond the lunch hall

School food does more than put lunch on the table. It supports children’s health and education, sustains local jobs and strengthens the communities schools sit within.

When a provider closes, children lose familiar faces at lunchtime, schools are left managing uncertainty, experienced staff lose their livelihoods, and communities lose an employer that mattered to them.

Funding and procurement need to change

This sector needs a different approach to funding and procurement. Meal rates should reflect real inflation rather than historic budgets. Procurement should reward quality of service, not simply the lowest price.

The people delivering this work also deserve better protection, proper investment and contingency planning, so schools are never left exposed when a provider can no longer continue.

Government ambition must be backed by investment

None of this is a radical ask. It aligns closely with the government’s own ambition to build the healthiest generation in the nation’s history, an ambition in which school meals play a central role. Without changes to funding, that ambition risks remaining just words.

Children will ultimately pay the price

After nearly four decades working in school food, I care about this sector deeply. The people working in our school kitchens are not looking to become wealthy. They want to keep feeding children safely, with pride and dignity, as they always have done.

If we cannot support them to do that, it is children who ultimately lose out, and that is a cost this country cannot afford.