When considering your inhouse or tendered catering, it is always a good idea to focus on the sourcing of your ingredients. Going local is something Red Box look for when comparing tender submissions or when benchmarking services.

It is also something our clients are becoming more conscious of when purchasing a catering service. Some schools are even keen to use homegrown produce in their kitchens and who could blame them!

According to the Better Food campaign, there are lots of benefits for sourcing food locally: it tastes better, it contains more nutrients, it supports the local economy and it is far better for the environment.

But many schools are still getting their food from much further afield. The national food standards, which schools are legally required to adhere to, make no mention of where ingredients should be sourced. However, the accompanying set of guidelines, the school food plan – does and many schools chose to implement them.

In recent decades, celebrating food from abroad has come at the cost of locally home grown foods, but it now seems to have come full circle: restaurants, chefs and food lovers have been taking on the challenge.

Food for Life, a Soil Association initiative, has been a key driver of this shift thanks to its awards to prove food quality: the bronze, silver and gold catering marks. There are currently almost 10,000 schools with the catering mark – this includes primary, secondary, independents and academies. Over two-thirds (65.6%) of these are silver or gold awarded schools. For the two higher marks, there is a specific incentive for local sourcing but even bronze level asks for schools to use in-season produce, which lends itself to also being local.

Many schools have chosen to take on external companies to help make sure their school dinners are up to scratch. If your school is interested in how you can make improvements in your service, do not hesitate to contact Red Box Consultancy Services for a no obligation discussion of your requirements.