Resources
For Schools
Toolkits &
Resources
Go-To Guide
feed bellies not bins
A one-stop-shop resource for all things reducing food waste.
We’ve partnered with Eat it Up and Hubbub to bring schools a resource for tackling food waste.
Go-To Guide
try something new day
Inspired by the BBC’s Great British Menu Champion of Champions Amber Francis.
This guide is designed to get students trying something new, expanding tastebuds, and their curiosity too.
Go-To Guide
Brightening up your breakfast club
This collection of guides is here to support schools ensure their breakfast clubs are the best they can be.
The guides contain a plethora of advice for schools and kitchen teams and inspiration to help brighten up breakfast!
Go-to guide
School food toolkit
This pack of resources is aimed at helping every school put its best foot forward and transform their food.
This pack contains advice for kitchen teams, school business managers and teachers to help them work together to improve quality and increase demand.
Go-to guide
A Governor’s Guide To Improving School Food
Whether your school is contracted, going in-house, or just beginning to explore changes – this guide helps you make informed decisions that benefit children, staff and budgets.
Together, we can ensure every child has access to great food at school.
‘Vegucate’ the pupils!
create your own 
‘school of food’
Create your own food education hub. Whether you embark on a small scale project transforming a classroom, or a larger state–of-the art cookery school, this guide can help.
This pack pulls together the knowledge and experience gathered during the creation, building and launch of the Hackney School of Food.
School Food
Standards
The current National School Food Standards for England
Guidance
From Government
Useful resources and practical tools for schools produced by the School Food Plan team on behalf of the Department for Education. These resources and tools contain public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (as the same may be updated and/or amended from time to time).
149 pages // national strategy
THE SCHOOL FOOD PLAN
Created by Chefs in Schools Co-Founder Henry Dimbleby, alongside Government.
1 PAGE // ENGLISH STANDARDS
Summary: school food standards
Have a look at the School Food Standards: legal guidelines to make food in schools nourishing.
4 PAGE // Kitchen guide to standards
Portion sizes and food groups
Looking to check if your school’s portion sizes are right? Or wanting to deep dive into the different food groups? This is the doc for you.
1 PAGE // Kitchen guide to standards
CHECKLIST FOR SCHOOL LUNCHES
A handy checklist to ensure your school is meeting the base requirements for serving food to students.
1 PAGE // Kitchen guide to standards
Checklist For School Food Other than Lunches
Transforming school food isn’t just about lunches, it’s about the whole school day too.
Research
& Evidence
School Food Environment, Impacts and Needs
25 PAGES// REPORT (2025)
the school food standards: what parents want for their children
Our report shares polling with parents, alongside insights from school chefs, young people and the wider school food sector. The polling makes a clear case to government: Across regions and income groups, parents want stronger school food standards, properly enforced.
19 PAGES// EVIDENCE PACK (2022)
Feed the future coalition: The Superpower of free school meals
This evidence pack presents key data and evidence on Free School Meals (FSM) gathered from a range of independent sources. The intention is to demonstrate to policy makers the evidence that investment in FSM makes sense socially, morally and economically.
15 PAGES// SURVEY DATA (2023)
Chefs in schools x survation: Parents on FSM
This survey of 1,036 parents provides clear evidence on parents’ views. Overwhelmingly parents believe that England’s Free School Meal eligibility criteria is set too low and should be increased. Find out what else they said.
15 PAGES// SURVEY DATA (2022)
chefs in schools x survation: Teachers on Childhood Hunger & School Food
527 teachers completed this survey sharing their experience of children, food culture and the school food in their schools. Find out how many see children skip meals, bring pack lunches with insufficient food and how many eat their school’s food offering.
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