Overview
Bury Catering is an award-winning school meals service providing delicious food which is good for our children’s health, nature and the climate and ensuring kitchen practise minimises water, energy and waste.
Our children and young people are the future of the borough and making sure they are well fed during their school day means they are active and alert helping them to learn and achieve.
Key services provided
- Freshly prepared dishes from fresh unprocessed ingredients
- No fish from the Marine Stewardship Council 'fish to avoid' list is served and our tuna is dolphin friendly
- Our vegetables, fruit, salad, and potatoes are predominantly fresh, whole and seasonal. We have also introduced Organic produce.
- Our suppliers are vetted, fully traceable and many are local to minimise food miles. We purchase meat, dairy, fruit & vegetables from local sources.
- Red Tractor (UK farm assured) chicken, pork, and beef
- Free range and Organic Eggs
- Our meat is of a high standard, for example, our minced beef is steak mince with only 5% fat
- Our food does not contain nuts, added salt or saturated fat, artificial additives, or colourings, or mechanically recovered meat
Our school meals provide a choice of menus including gluten free, dairy free and vegan options and we work with the NHS to provide, carbohydrate count information, for diabetics. Certificated Halal meat is available in most schools where there is a requirement.
We cater for special diets and allergies and comply with the mandatory School Food Standards from the Department for Education regarding nutrition in children's diets. We recently received the Food for Life - Gold Award from the Soil Association for the service we provide. We are currently the only council in the UK to achieve this for all our schools.
We follow Natasha’s Law providing full ingredient lists with allergens highlighted
All our Primary schools have achieved 'Excellent' in the 'Greater Manchester Healthier Catering Award' also we have been awarded Green Kitchen Standards Award.
For many of our high schools we also offer a mid-morning break service.
Eligibility/criteria
Primary paid school meals cost £2.70 or £13 a week for two courses, drink and help yourself salad bar, while a standard high school lunchtime meal deal costs £2.80 per day made up of a main dish, a drink and a home-made cake or cookie, with further options available.
All Years 1 and 2 pupils get free school meals, while from those in Year 3 onwards receive them if they qualify. We operate the auto-enrolment system which means families who qualify for a free school meal, but have not applied, are now being automatically enrolled to make sure their child receives nutritious meals.
Service impact
- 16,000 children in Bury eat a healthy and nutritious school lunch every school day.
- We cater for 54 schools across the borough
- We provide meals during the holidays for those who qualify for free school meals making sure they also can eat healthily during school breaks
Bury School Catering has recently been awarded both the Food for Life Served Here award at Gold level and the Green Kitchen Standard from the Soil Association.
Food for Life Served Here certification verifies the food on the plate, to support caterers to demonstrate their commitment to climate, nature, and health through the food purchased and served.
Food for Life Served Here certified meals are freshly prepared by trained chefs. All ingredients are free from additives, artificial trans fats and GM ingredients. The meat served can be traced back to the farm and meets or exceeds UK animal welfare standards, eggs are free range, fish is sustainable, and menus make the most of seasonal ingredients. All of which reduces the environmental impact of menus.
Green Kitchen Standard
- A waste minimisation plan has been developed and is ensuring waste food is being reduced. Any waste that is generated is turned into compost.
- Bury Council has an extensive environmental policy with the catering operation considered throughout.
- A strong procurement policy is in place ensuring minimal disposable products are used and those that have high environmental credentials.
Free school meals
Auto-enrolment onto free school meals means during the past year a further 400 children receive a healthy lunch saving them up to £400 per year and means that they qualify for Holiday Free School Meals as well.
Free breakfast clubs
The government launched its Breakfast Club Early Adopter Scheme this year and Bury Catering service played its part.
Three Bury schools - Radcliffe Hall CE Methodist, Emmanuel Holcombe CE, St John with St Mark CE - joined this pilot, offering healthy breakfasts and a calm start to the day for all pupils, improving attendance and their readiness to learn.
The Department for Education (DfE) programme funded free, universal breakfast clubs in primary schools in 750 schools across the country. The government will invest a further £80m to provide the scheme in an extra 2000 schools from April 2026.
Key features:
- Breakfast is free for all pupils, regardless of background, reducing costs for families.
- Clubs run for at least 30 minutes before school, providing a supportive start.
- Aims to improve attendance, behaviour, punctuality, and children's ability to concentrate.
- The programme aims to have free breakfast clubs in every primary school by September 2026.
Partnerships/teamwork
Bury Catering has worked with Public Health to get £10,000 distributed to Year 3 primary school children to subsidise school meals for parents who have struggled paying for meals after free school meals ended for them.
With one of our suppliers, Dunster's Farm, we have also introduced the Eco Warrior Project which delivers tools, equipment, seeds to schools in Bury to grow their own fruit and vegetables. This has been a wonderful project and now schools are harvesting their own fruit and vegetables, prepped and cooked by the kitchen teams and provided on school meals.