Sustainability & School Food
Making Every Luch Count
At Edwards & Ward, we serve around 225,000 school meals every week. That gives us a real opportunity — and responsibility — to make choices that are better for children, better for schools and better for the planet.
Our approach is practical and food-led. We want to serve fresh, nutritious meals that children enjoy, while making thoughtful changes that reduce waste, lower impact and support the sustainability work already taking place in our schools.
This is not about one single project. It is about looking at every part of the lunch service — the food we buy, the menus we write, the way we train our teams, the suppliers we work with and the waste we produce.
What We Are Doing
We are making careful, practical changes across our menus and operations.
This includes:
• introducing Planet Plate Day every Monday across our standard primary menus;
• increasing the use of beans, lentils, chickpeas, vegetables and other plant-rich ingredients;
• placing plant-rich dishes more prominently on menus;
• introducing a beef and plant-protein mince blend into selected dishes to reduce overall meat content;
• reducing disposable packaging across our secondary counters;
• developing edible carriers through our Food² concept;
• monitoring food waste through Chef’s Eye in multiple kitchen operations;
• consolidating supply through our key supplier, Bidfood, helping to reduce the number of separate deliveries into kitchens;
• supporting our teams through sustainability-focused training and kitchen skills development;
• and continuing to review our menus so they support both nutrition and sustainability.
Small changes can make a meaningful difference — especially when they happen across thousands of school lunches every day.
Environmental Management
Our wider sustainability work is underpinned by our ISO 14001 certified Environmental Management System and Environmental Management Plan. This provides a clear framework for managing our environmental responsibilities, monitoring our impact and continually improving the way we work.
It helps ensure that environmental considerations are built into everyday decision-making across the business, from menu development and waste reduction to supplier relationships, transport, packaging and kitchen operations.
Planet Plate Day
Every Monday is Planet Plate Day on our standard primary menus.
This is our weekly planet-friendly day, where colourful, plant-rich dishes take centre stage. The focus is on food that tastes great, feels familiar and helps children build confidence with a wider variety of ingredients.
As part of Planet Plate Day, Monday menus remain meat and fish free. This helps us reduce the environmental impact of our menus while still offering meals that are nutritious, balanced and enjoyable.
Silver School Plates Award
Our Autumn 2026 standard primary menus have achieved the Silver School Plates Award from ProVeg UK.
This recognises the progress we are making towards healthier, more sustainable school food. The award looks at practical actions such as menu balance, plant-rich dishes, positive menu language, chef training and how well caterers communicate the benefits of sustainable food.
For us, Silver is not the finish line. It is a clear step forward — and one we are committed to building on.
Why Plant-Rich Food Matters
Food has a significant impact on the environment, and the direction of travel is clear: we need to make it easier for children to enjoy a wider variety of plant-rich foods.
The EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet is based around more wholegrains, fruit, vegetables, nuts and legumes, with smaller amounts of animal-based foods. This does not mean removing familiar meals from school menus. It means gradually increasing variety, using more plant-rich ingredients and making small, practical changes that children will accept and enjoy.
On our menus, this means making more use of ingredients such as beans, lentils, chickpeas and vegetables. It also means using approaches such as our beef and plant-protein mince blend in selected dishes, helping to reduce overall meat content while keeping meals familiar, tasty and appealing to pupils.
This also supports the wider direction of travel for school food, including the current focus on increasing fibre and offering more vegetables, pulses, fruit and wholegrains across school meals.
Small Changes, Big Impact
The impact of small menu changes can be significant.
For an average-sized primary school, swapping one animal-based meal for a plant-rich meal each week over a school year can save:
Over 1,000,000 litres of water
Over 13,240kg CO₂e
20,236m² of land
That carbon saving is equivalent to driving 107,875km in a car — around two and a half times around the world — and the land saving is equivalent to nearly three full-sized football pitches.
Reducing Food Waste
Reducing food waste is a key part of our sustainability work.
We are actively using Chef’s Eye across multiple kitchen operations to track food waste from different areas, including preparation waste, production waste and plate waste. This helps us understand what is happening in our kitchens and dining rooms, spot patterns and identify where improvements can be made.
The data can help us look at questions such as:
• which dishes are creating more waste;
• whether waste changes on certain days or menu cycles;
• where portioning, production or pupil uptake may need reviewing;
• and how we can work with schools to encourage pupils to enjoy a balanced plate and try a wider variety of foods.
This gives us better insight, not just assumptions, and helps us make practical changes based on what is really happening on site.
Reducing Disposables
We are working to reduce the number of disposables used across our secondary counters.
Our chef team is developing Food² — a new concept designed to serve food in edible carriers rather than relying on disposable trays, pots or plates. This includes ideas such as hollowed-out baguettes, large Yorkshire puddings, crisp nacho cones, jacket potato skins and wraps.
The aim is simple: serve exciting, food-led counter options while reducing the need for single-use disposables.
Food² also takes a common-sense approach to waste. For example, if a baguette is hollowed out, the inside can be used for breadcrumbs or croutons. If a jacket potato is hollowed out, the excess potato can be used in dishes such as sausage and mash or cottage pie.
Our aim is to begin with around 20–25% of counters served in this way and build from there through training, menu planning and positive culture change.
Smarter Kitchens and Skills
Sustainability also happens in the kitchen.
Launching in September 2026, our Skills Studio will sit alongside our recipe development work and support staff training through practical videos, tips and kitchen skills.
This will include ideas around how to reuse, reduce, recycle or neutralise waste in a safe and sensible way. Examples include using vegetable peelings within sauces, drying onion skins to make a homemade onion powder for soups and casseroles, and sharing practical skills that help teams get more value from the ingredients they use.
This is about building confidence, reducing unnecessary waste and helping our teams make small improvements every day.
Working With Our Supplier
We use Bidfood as our key supplier, which helps us consolidate purchasing and reduce the number of separate supplier vehicles delivering into our kitchens.
Bidfood has its own sustainability programme covering areas such as carbon reduction, responsible sourcing, food waste reduction, packaging, sustainable seafood, water, biodiversity and product policies. This gives us a stronger platform to link our procurement decisions to wider supply chain work.
Bidfood’s sustainability roadmaps cover carbon reduction, responsible sourcing and food waste reduction, and the business has set a 2045 net-zero carbon ambition. Bidfood is also a signatory of WRAP’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and has product policies covering areas such as palm oil, soya, animal welfare, plastic and packaging, responsible fish, modern slavery and ethical trading.
By working closely with one supplier, we can better understand the products we buy, the policies behind them and the opportunities to make further improvements.
Transport and Operations
We are also looking carefully at the operational impact of how we work.
By consolidating deliveries across the business, we have taken over 700 lorries/deliveries off the road each week. Reducing unnecessary deliveries helps lower vehicle movements, supports more efficient kitchen operations and reduces disruption on school sites.
We are also moving towards a lower-impact vehicle fleet. Currently, 75% of our operators have electric vehicles, and we are working towards all team members using EVs where possible.
These operational changes sit alongside our menu work, helping us take a broader view of sustainability across the business — from the food we serve to the way it reaches our kitchens.
Packed Lunches and Practical Changes
Sustainability is not only about hot meals.
We are reviewing packed lunch options, moving away from more disposable-heavy formats and developing a better-quality packed lunch offer that is kinder to the environment and produces a more appealing end product for children.
We are also trialling practical changes in kitchens, including a pilot to reduce blue roll use in selected schools. This is part of a wider focus on reducing unnecessary disposables where it is safe and practical to do so.
Supporting Schools
We know many schools are already working hard on sustainability, climate action, eco-school projects and pupil voice.
Our menus and sustainability work can help support that activity by giving schools clear, practical examples of positive change already happening through their lunch service.
We can also signpost schools to useful resources, including ProVeg’s free Canteen to Classroom materials, which support classroom conversations around food, climate change, food waste, where food comes from and sustainable choices.
Training and Professional Development
We are investing in training across the business.
Training dates are planned for our senior team, and we will also be rolling out training to our kitchen teams. This will help build confidence with plant-rich recipes, ingredients and cooking techniques, so we can continue improving the food we serve.
Our Company Nutritionist has also completed Action in Sustainability in Nutrition and Dietetics training and regularly attends relevant CPD events to ensure our approach continues to reflect current thinking around school food, nutrition and sustainability.
Our Progress
In ProVeg UK’s latest Contract Caterer Ranking, Edwards & Ward placed 8th out of 37 caterers, improving from 13th out of 25 the previous year.
That progress shows we are moving in the right direction, but we know there is more to do.
Our aim is to keep improving our menus, our communication, our training and the support we offer schools year after year.
Looking Ahead
Sustainability is not a one-off project for us. It is becoming part of how we plan menus, train teams, work with suppliers, talk to schools and make everyday decisions.
We are proud of the progress we have made so far, but we know this is only the start.
Our focus is clear: fresh, tasty school food that children enjoy, delivered in a way that is more thoughtful, more responsible and better for the future.