Brad Pearce, chair of The School Food People, commented: “We welcome the Government's decision to increase school meal funding rates to £2.66 per meal for 2026/27. However, a 5p increase is not a solution to years of underfunding.
“The school food sector has already seen providers withdraw from the market because contracts have become financially unsustainable, and we know that schools are having to divert thousands from education budgets each year to subsidise their school meal service.
“This announcement also comes at a time when the sector is also preparing to deliver expanded Free School Meals eligibility and support wider ambitions to improve children's nutrition and wellbeing to hundreds of thousands more children.
“We strongly support the expansion of Free School Meals and the ambition to improve children's nutrition, health and educational outcomes. However, expanding access without providing funding that reflects the true cost of delivery risks undermining the very objectives the policy is intended to achieve.
“School meals are one of the most effective investments the Government can make in children's health and wellbeing. Yet the value of that investment is being eroded by a funding model that has consistently failed to keep pace with inflation and the realities of delivering school food.”