For Schools

What we can do for schools

School catering should be creative, straightforward and easy to manage so school staff can focus on the educational side, knowing that the children are eating well and will thrive throughout the school day.

Black Pepper Lunches supplies catering services for pre-schools, primary, secondary and high-schools across the Midlands and South West to simplify, inspire and support schools in delivering meals to their pupils. We work across the entire educational spectrum; in both mainstream and SEND sectors. We provide an easy to use meal management system and a flexible approach. We work with schools and children who eat our meals to ensure that we provide the best possible food at a great value price. Our meal ordering and payment system removes the daily headache of administering school meals from the classroom (orders) and school office (payments).

If your school is looking for a new catering provider, please take a look at what we can do and get in touch to find out more.

How we provide a great school catering service

When Black Pepper Lunches manages your catering we provide:

Fresh, nutritious food as standard so your pupils are supported in their learning throughout the day.
6 food options daily: 3 hot and 3 cold meals for children to choose from, plus a packed lunch option within our daily menu.
Full provision of appropriate meals for children with special requirements, religious dietary needs or allergies, for example catering to SEND children with conditions such as arfid.
A tailored approach to suit your school’s needs and facilities. We cater for very small schools in very rural areas, as well as larger urban schools. No matter the size of a school, we can make sure that the children are being fed hot, nutritious meals at lunchtime.
A high level of service, personalised to the school and catering to your needs and preferences.
Deliver initiatives proven to increase meal take-up on census days.
Flexibility in changes to menus and adaptability for special occasions - and responsive to last minute needs.
Parent-friendly payment process with no additional admin, negating the need for school staff to get involved and ensuring accuracy for FSM/UFSM provision.
A clear and transparent invoicing process which makes life simpler for your finance team.
Close management of the ordering, meal preparation and management process so mealtimes are streamlined and easy for school staff.
Additional options including hospitality catering, wrap-around clubs, themed meals and days, cookery clubs and bags of ideas so any additional catering needs are taken care of.
Information to help parents and pupils eat better through marketing and other materials, tailored to you.
Help with PTFA functions where required, so you maximise all opportunities to fundraise.

What makes Black Pepper Lunches different to other catering companies?

Where do we start?!

Our costs are lower than other companies as we do not use third party, subscription based, ordering and payment systems. We have our own system, developed in-house, which ensures accuracy of meal numbers and accurate management of FSM/UFSM. This system is free to all users.
We make sure the food tastes good – working with feedback from the staff, children and parents to make sure we get it right in taste and trends, as well as meeting National School Foods standards.
We treat all children equally, whether a child is eating a FSM or UFSM or a parent paid meal; all are given the same meals with consistent portion sizes.
We seek regular feedback, to ensure that everything from our menus to our service is continually improving.
We are proactive, with Area Managers on site every week (and more frequently at the beginning) to ensure that everything is well-taken care of.
We are community focused, employing local staff who are already invested in the schools and local communities in which they work.
We are environmentally conscious, looking for ways we can reduce our carbon footprint and minimise our waste, which can help with schools’ environmental targets

Do you cook food on the premises?

Yes, we can cook food on your school premises, or we can deliver prepared meals to your school. A delivered in service helps where the school is in a rural location or too small to have its own kitchen. We tailor our service, depending on each school’s needs.

A group of chefs prepare school lunches in a kitchen

For example we can:

Provide a full team of school staff (chefs and servers) to prepare, cook and serve all meals from your school kitchens
Provide a ‘delivered in’ service, where food is delivered to your dining hall for your staff to serve, or
Provide a combined approach of ‘delivered in’ food and staff to serve it, depending on your set up and available resources.
Our staff hold Enhanced DBS checks and are supported in their health and wellbeing by a strong management team.

What steps do you take to ensure the environment is protected through your service?

Our service is cost-effective and sustainable. We focus on limiting our environmental impact wherever we can – including providing a reusable cutlery and crockery service for every meal, choosing alternatives to plastic and reducing food waste.

We hold a 5* hygiene certificate rating by Environmental Health at all of our kitchen locations and have held this continually for over a decade at our Hub in Malvern.

A group of children by a tree, sustainable environmental message

How can we procure your services?

Call Saffie or David for an exploratory conversation and to tell us about your needs. We are on the YPO framework (879 for Catering Services) so schools can utilise this to approach to market where a formal tender process is required. We are also responsive to other procurement vehicles and available to direct contract.

Get in touch for a sample menu and starter pack through our Contact Us page.