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apetito provides meals to organisations catering to the young and the elderly.

When chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered her budget statement back in November 2026, it was clear there was a great deal for sectors across the UK to unpack. Yet for many working within education, one thing stood out immediately: the absence of meaningful measures to increase public spending.

The reaction across the sector was swift. Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, captured the mood, warning: ‘This was not a budget centred on public spending, and school finances remain in a precarious position.’

For anyone working in a school environment, this assessment will feel all too familiar. School budgets have been under intense pressure for years, with many leaders facing impossible choices about where limited funding should go. Rising energy bills, higher staffing costs across the whole school, and the need to maintain buildings and essential services have all tightened the financial squeeze.

Within this already stretched environment, school kitchens are now wrestling with unprecedented pressures of their own. Longstanding staffing shortages, tightening budgets, inflation, and rapidly rising food prices are converging to create a perfect storm. One which threatens schools’ ability to provide high quality, nutritious meals that fuel pupils’ learning and well-being.

The data behind the pressure is stark. According to the Office for National Statistics, food inflation remained at 4.4% as of January 2026, continuing a trend that has stretched catering budgets to breaking point. While these figures reflect the broader economic landscape, the impact on schools is especially severe. As funding levels remain largely frozen, school meal services are struggling to keep pace with inflation and absorb rising operational costs.

DEFRA-commissioned modelling has identified five key drivers behind food prices: farmgate costs, import prices, exchange rate shifts, and both labour and non labour manufacturing costs. Regardless of the root cause, the effect is the same. Costs are rising sharply, and these increases are being passed directly on to schools. In the last year alone, reports from The School Food People and The Caterer have highlighted school meal service closures in Plymouth and Leicester, reflecting a worrying national pattern. The combination of escalating costs and stagnant free school meal funding is forcing some caterers into unsustainable financial territory.

The financial strain is further illustrated by recent comments from Brad Pearce, chair of The School Food People. He noted that labour costs in school kitchens have jumped by 28% in just a few years, while overall food and labour costs together have risen by more than 50%. To make matters worse, employers’ National Insurance contributions have increased by an additional 19%, piling further pressure onto budgets that are already stretched to their limits. This aligns with findings from the organisation’s Cost of Living and Supply Chain Survey, which show that only 19% of respondents are able to provide a school food compliant meal within the current £2.61 funding rate. With meal prices having risen 26.5% since March 2020, the funding gap continues to widen, leaving many schools facing significant deficits in their meal provision budgets.

But financial pressures tell only part of the story. Schools must also contend with a rising expectation from parents: that their children will be served high quality meals that cater to diverse dietary needs and preferences. Meeting these expectations is becoming increasingly difficult as staffing shortages intensify. According to The School Foods People, 78% of caterers struggle to attract applicants, and 63% cannot find staff with the skills required to meet modern dietary and nutritional standards. Even when schools do manage to recruit, rising wages and higher National Insurance contributions make staffing an increasingly costly component of meal delivery.

The conclusion is becoming impossible to ignore. With rising costs, frozen funding, supply chain pressures and national labour shortages, school meal services are being pushed towards breaking point. If schools are expected to continue delivering nutritious, safe and appealing meals for every pupil, they need practical, realistic support to navigate these growing challenges.

It is in this context that apetito is launching a comprehensive and entirely free guide designed to help schools better manage, control, and reduce their catering costs. Helping Schools Save: A Guide to Delivering Cost-Effective School Meals provides schools with a toolkit full of practical advice, covering everything from reviewing catering costs and restructuring staffing models to reducing waste and increasing student engagement.

The guide goes beyond broad recommendations. It provides actionable steps that schools can take immediately, alongside medium- and long-term strategies that support more sustainable school meal provision. This includes practical guidance on meal planning, labour efficiencies, menu engineering, food waste reduction and methods to ensure that catering remains both compliant and cost effective.

Rupert Weber, general manager for education at apetito, emphasises why this guide is so urgently needed: ‘Anyone working in a school knows that kitchens are facing unprecedented challenges, and the last few years have been some of the most turbulent in recent memory. Rising food prices, increasing staffing costs and additional financial pressures across the independent school sector mean that many catering teams are being asked to do more with less, all while trying to maintain the high standards that pupils deserve.

‘Good nutrition is fundamental to a child’s ability to focus, learn and thrive in the classroom, so compromising on quality simply isn’t an option. That’s why we felt it was essential to create this new guide, which aims to give schools clear, practical and genuinely actionable steps they can take to control costs without reducing the standard of meals they serve. Whether it’s reassessing staffing structures, reducing food waste, streamlining menus or improving operational efficiency, there are real opportunities for schools to protect both quality and budgets.

‘Our aim is to empower school leaders and catering teams with the tools, insights and confidence they need to deliver a high-quality, cost effective meal service that makes a meaningful difference to pupils every single day.’

Download your FREE copy of Helping Schools Save: A Guide to Delivering Cost-Effective School Meals.

Transform your school catering

At apetito, we believe in providing more than just school meals. We deliver outstanding quality, simplified operations and serious cost savings in every bite.

We were born out of a passion for great food, and we've proudly been making a real difference to the lives of those we serve for more than 65 years. As experts in nutrition, we’re committed to providing high-quality, nutritious and safe meals to support the well-being of your pupils.