Sustainable School Caterer 2024

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Exciting news! Chartwells, the people behind Love School Meals, recently picked up the Sustainability in Education Award at this year's Footprint Awards. These awards shine a light on excellence in environmental sustainability – keep reading to see why our environmental approach has us loved by parents and the planet alike.  

Whipping up a green revolution  

At Love School Meals, we're all about teaching kids to pick nutritious, planet-loving meals. That’s why we have what we call a ‘sustainability roadmap’ that focuses on three key areas: menu reformulation, cutting food waste and education – all aimed at dishing out healthy, sustainable school dining experiences for your children.  

Menus with a smaller carbon bite 

Partnered with the brilliant Foodsteps, we’ve analysed over 2,000 recipes to track their carbon footprints. This lets our culinary teams craft delicious, low-impact meals that help us keep little tummies full while serving up sustainability every school day. 

Minimise waste, maximise tastiness 

Food waste is a big problem in the food industry, and with picky eaters and our priority of keeping kids' bellies full, cutting down can be a bit of a challenge. That’s why we’ve introduced a digital food waste tracking tool to pinpoint and reduce school food waste, so every meal served is both nutritious and environmentally friendly.

Teaching sustainability to 1 million kids by 2030 

Sustainability is our secret ingredient, and it’s an ethos we know many parents share and want to encourage in their children. Our plan is to teach 1 million students about sustainable diets by 2030. With engaging sessions led by our nutrition team, we're already making strides - we reached 106,000 students last year alone, equipping them with the knowledge to make thoughtful, planet-friendly choices.  

Better together  

Sustainability is in our DNA. We go beyond recycling, swapping single-use items for reusables and training our teams to serve up food responsibly. We also partner with programmes to help schools and universities hit their climate goals, like teaming up with To Good to Go to cut campus food waste.  

Change that parents feel good about 

Our win at the 2024 Footprint Awards shows our commitment to serving up sustainable school meals that parents can feel good about. Thanks to the Footprint Awards for the honour and our partners and clients for their support.