School meals

Menus that pupils like

To make sure your child enjoys our meals, we develop our menus in consultation with pupils, schools and parents. Our school meals meet all nutritional standards and guidelines, including Food for Life and the School Food Plan.

Fresh, tasty and healthy

Dishes are expertly prepared each day on the premises, using fresh, local, organic ingredients:

• we use only free range eggs
• our meat is farm assured (meaning it is sourced from farms with high standards of animal welfare)
• our fish responsibly caught from sustainable sources

Good food for all

We cater for all medically diagnosed special dietary conditions and aim to provide for a variety of cultural and religious requirements. In the first instance, speak to your school for assistance.

Outstanding value

• £2.10 for primary pupils
• £2.30 for secondary pupils

Meals for free

Many pupils are entitled to free school meals – including all infants (reception, year one and year two). This can save you hundreds of pounds and help boost funds for your school.

No more cash handling

Our school meal payment system is cashless, removing the need to carry cash around, improving personal security. Our cashless system also allows you to:

• check your child’s account balance
• top-up
• see what your child has chosen to eat each day

Contact your child’s school for more information or assistance.

Confidentiality assured

With our cashless payment system no one can tell whether your child’s meal has been paid for by you or provided for free.

Dining room experience

Sitting down to a school meal with friends helps develop good table manners and social skills support – essential attributes for later life

Making life easier for you

Avoid the early morning starts and expense of preparing packed lunches. You know that your child will benefit from a school lunch is delicious, healthy and nutritionally balanced.

Our Primary school menu offers a daily menu of:

• a choice of meat or vegetarian main course with vegetables
• Halal options
• a filled roll cold option (not available at all schools)
• filled baked potatoes
• delicious, healthy desserts

Primary school meals cost just £2.10 per day.

Sample menus

These sample menus from our schools showcase the variety of meals our teams produce, including special theme days that are held throughout the year.

Eastbury Primary menu (PDF, 97KB)

Furze School menu (PDF, 121KB)

George Carey menu (PDF, 98KB)

Manor Infants menu (PDF, 112KB)

Manor Junior menu (PDF, 112KB)

Manor School Longbridge menu (PDF, 98KB)

Rush Green menu (PDF, 97KB)

Harvest Festival Menu (PDF, 479KB)

National School Meals Week menu (PDF, 138KB)

World Book Day menu (PDF, 164KB)

World Bumble Bee Day menu (PDF, 453KB)

Our menus are developed by specialist teams who liaise closely with the schools and parents to ensure the menus are varied, balanced, healthy and popular. Special diets and allergies are all catered for.

We commit to providing the following each day:

• slow release, complex carbohydrates in all our dishes
• meat-free meal options
• unlimited vegetables and salad
• limited sugar and refined carbs
• healthier junk food alternatives
• appealing fruit and vegetables

Food for life award

Our school catering provision has Silver Food for Life Certification, which confirms our commitment to serving locally sourced and ethical ingredients free from undesirable additives and trans fats, that meets UK welfare standards and comply with national nutrition standards.

Example secondary school meal menu (PDF, 5.20 MB)

Our Secondary school menus aim to bring the high street restaurant experience into the school dining environment. The secondary school menu includes a greater range of satisfying grab and go choices including:

• chicken
• pasta
• noodles
• filled jacket potatoes
• choice of hot and cold filled breads
• desserts and drinks

The perfect hunger cure for busy students on the move.

Secondary meals cost just £2.30.

Good nutrition, regular exercise and sufficient sleep are essential to helping children achieve and benefit from a healthy, successful future.

Unfortunately, we have a significant child obesity problem in Barking and Dagenham. It’s a problem that our catering service is committed to helping to address.

We work closely with schools, parents, young people and expert organisations to help ensure that the dishes we serve are wholesome, tasty and healthy.

Food for Life

Food for Life is all about making healthy, tasty and nutritious meals ‘the norm’ for all to enjoy. Working with parents and schools to help connect children with:

• where food comes from
• how it’s grown and cooked
• understanding the importance of well-sourced ingredients to tasty healthy foods

We are Gold-level accredited ambassadors for the Food for Life programme.

The School Food Plan

The School Food Plan is an agreed plan, supported by the Secretary of State for Education and a diverse set of organisations (including BD Together Catering Services) who are helping head teachers to improve food in their schools.

Like Food for Life, the School Food Plan is about the pleasures of growing, cooking and eating proper food. However, it is also about improving the academic performance of our children and the health of our nation.

Each of our meals has been rigorously analysed to ensure it is nutritionally balanced and fully complies with all current legislative standards and good practice guidelines.

BD Together Catering Services is able to meet any cultural, religious or medical dietary requirements to enable your child to enjoy the school dining experience.

Under EU legislation, it’s a requirement for food businesses to provide information about 14 allergenic ingredients – identified by the Food Standards Agency – used in foods sold, or provided, by them.

The 14 allergenic ingredients are:

• celery
• cereals containing gluten
• crustaceans
• eggs
• fish
• lupin
• milk
• molluscs
• soya
• mustard
• nuts
• peanuts
• sesame oil
• sulphur dioxide

As a responsible school meal provider, our catering service ensures that it meets these legal requirements in a number of ways.

We secure data relating to the allergen content of ‘bought-in’ product, i.e. ingredients and pre-prepared foods, from our food suppliers. We also use a web-based nutritional analysis system which provides accurate data about the nutritional and allergen content of complete dishes.

These data sources mean that we have very accurate information about the allergen content of our dishes. Any special dietary requirement information supplied parents, is recorded onto our cashless system and displayed on our till screen whenever the child pay for their meal. This helps to ensure that the child is served only dishes they are allowed at all times.

The allergen content of our food is also incorporated into the recipe books used by our kitchen staff. Contact the school if you have any queries about the nutritional or allergen content of our dishes.

The 14 allergens (PDF, 130.42 KB)

Useful websites

• Allergy UK
• Anaphylaxis Campaign

Find out if your child qualifies for free school meals.