National School Meals Week:
expert food procurement for academies and trusts
A strategic approach to school meals, combining cost control, compliance, and creativity.
This National School Meals Week, the pressure on in-house school catering teams has never been greater. With rising food and labour costs, stretched resources, and evolving nutritional requirements, delivering high-quality, compliant meals on a budget is a daily challenge.
- Food inflation: 5.1%, forecast to rise to 6% by December
- National Minimum Wage increase: +6.7%
- Employer NIC increase: +1.2%
- Result: Higher food and operational costs across education catering
That’s why a strategic food procurement partner like allmanhall can make all the difference – empowering trusts and academies to keep control of your spend while serving nutritious, inspiring meals every day.
Here’s how food procurement plays a pivotal role in that mission…
Why procurement matters more than ever
Food inflation currently sits at 3.6% (February 2026) and is predicted to remain at around 4% throughout this year. Together with the 6.7% National Minimum Wage increase and 1.2% rise in employer National Insurance Contributions, these drive up not only food production costs but also the costs of running school kitchens. When budgets are tight, in-house caterers need a strategic partner to maintain quality while navigating inflation and complexity.
Bishop Hogarth Education Trust achieved food cost savings of 10.1% after partnering with allmanhall – without compromising food quality or supply. Their order fulfilment reached 98% in the first three months.
The best way to manage this is by partnering an in-house catering team with a provider who can give an academy or trust not only cost savings but a raft of other support functions – a one-stop shop for a school’s catering needs when it comes to planning, purchasing and serving school meals.
Why? Because food procurement is no longer just about buying better. It provides a solution for achieving:
- Cost savings and inflation mitigation
- Supplier consolidation and administration reduction
- Menu compliance and allergen safety
- Sustainable, inclusive food offers
…not only for National School Meals Week but long into the future.
Nigel Donnelly confirms that, for the Northern Star Academies Trust, “allmanhall’s support has been so much more than simply supply chain management and price negotiation, as valuable as that is. They offer a consultative approach and full support, understanding and enabling our objectives and really taking onboard our specific needs and challenges”.
What is food procurement and how can it support in-house catering?
In short, it’s the full process of sourcing, managing, and optimising all food purchases and supply logistics. But allmanhall take it further with our four procurement pillars:
Value: Benchmarked pricing and ongoing cost mitigation
Support: Hands-on help from our award-winning client support team
Insight: Market analysis, commodity tracking, bespoke reporting
Control: Systems and visibility to empower kitchen teams
Our approach enables caterers to focus on food, not administration. We act as an extension of your team.
Nigel Donnelly of Northern Star Academies Trust reinforces that working with allmanhall made a vast difference to the Trust – “These guys really know what they’re doing when it comes to effective procurement and making substantial savings that can be reinvested in our in-house operation”.
Partnering with allmanhall, academies and trusts see more than just savings – administrative workloads are slashed. Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust were delighted that their 878 monthly invoices across the Trust were reduced to just 30, amongst other tangible benefits.
Cordelia Percy, Trusts Facilities Lead, confirms that, “Due to the scale of the change, we at the Trust were apprehensive on how moving from a long-standing supplier to [allmanhall] would impact the 31 schools within the Trust. Due to the excellent mobilisation team, the transition was very good. We received excellent communication, problem solving and training”.
For a more detailed look at the benefits of an expert food procurement solution, read our comprehensive blog here.
Beyond procurement: nutrition, sustainability, and inspiration
Choosing the right partner can also deliver an integrated, expert nutrition and dietetics function with Registered Dietitians who clearly understand and promote School Food Standards, provide regulatory compliance updates, and offer allergen management training, which is critical when up to 9% of children are estimated to have food allergies.
allmanhall introduced a fixed Authorised Buying List to Northern Star Academy Trust to ensure menus would always be compliant with requirements.
Surrounding a catering team with inspiration for new menu ideas will engage them and spark creativity, as well as ensure that sustainability as well as cultural inclusivity are core ingredients of the meals provided.
Examples of this can be found in allmanhall’s School Food Standards-compliant Hero Recipes. Watch this space for a third volume of recipes coming in January 2026.
And we offer more than just food procurement – allmanhall truly act as an extension of in-house catering teams, embedding our team of expert ex-caterers in our clients’ catering operations to go the extra mile.
“The allmanhall team also support the Trust with offering up voluntary time to support with community events, where students and their families are regularly invited in to dine with other members of their community and enjoy a complimentary evening at one of the schools”
– Russell Abbey, previously Head of Catering Services, Heart Academies Trust
Better food procurement, better school meals
Let’s make every school meal smarter, more sustainable and more supported – not just during National School Meals Week but well into the future.
Get in touch with allmanhall now to start the conversation.