Maximising our Impact on
Student Outcomes with Impact+
Impact+ is our social impact strategy. It underpins our commitment to transform lives through the power of food – ensuring that every meal we serve makes our students happy, better able to attend, focus and enjoy school and leading them to achieve better outcomes.
Built around three core pillars – Passion for Food, Healthy Planet, and Thriving People and Communities –
Impact+ defines how we deliver measurable outcomes through high-quality nutrition, a more
sustainable world, and stronger communities.
PASSION FOR FOOD
Food that inspires students today – shaping better outcomes for tomorrow.
Our Passion for Food is all about delivering high-quality, nutritious and appealing meals that students love. Our chefs and nutritionists use their expertise across our menus to reduce fat, sugar, salt, increase fibre and protein, and bring back whole foods, fruits and vegetables – all while crafting recipes that inspire curiosity, fuel learning, and nurture and lifelong love of food.
“Children require nutrient-dense foods to fuel their rapid growth and development. Whole plant foods are rich in essential vitamins and minerals, fibre, and antioxidants, all of which are crucial for maintaining optimum health.”
Source: Landry, M. J., & Ward, C. P. (2024). Health Benefits of a Plant-Based Dietary Pattern and Implementation in Healthcare and Clinical Practice. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. Find out more at the World Resources Institute.
The EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet recommends a diet rich in whole grains, nuts, vegetables, fruits and legumes. Find out more here.
In 2024/25, innovations in our menu design increased fibre by 2,544kg across our nine most popular main meals and by 35% across of malted baguettes and bloomer sandwiches. We also reduced sugar by 17.5% across our bakery range – the equivalent of 3.5 million sugar cubes.
We continue to expand our range of responsibly sourced ingredients – including Red Tractor beef from Scotland and chicken from Hertfordshire and Wolverhampton, only sustainable MCS- or MSC-certified fish, Fairtrade cocoa, and either Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance barista coffee – ensuring that our menus can meet the Soil Association’s Food for Life accreditations.
All of our vegetarian and vegan dishes are also approved by the Vegetarian Society. In 2024/25, 63% of all secondary school meal options on our menus were vegetarian or vegan, while one third of all meals sold in primary schools were vegetarian or vegan. This helped to place us in ProVeg’s Top 10 Contract Caterers for our plant-forward, planet-friendly menus in 2024/25. Find out more about ProVeg International here.
Project Showcase: Ian Morgan ‘Taste the Rainbow’
When I firs
t presented ‘Eat the Rainbow’ at the Harris Federation, the idea was to help kids to eat their five-a-day by getting them excited to choose fruits and veg from every colour of the rainbow. We presented these in visually intere
sting and appealing ways and educated the students about the benefits of eating them - both raw and cooked. We also set up a smoothie-making station and helped the children to choose five fruits and veg that they want to try. We blended these freshly in front of them on the spot - they went down a real treat! It’s always such a heartwarming and humbling experience to bring this to our kids.
HEALTHY PLANET
Sustainability-smart food with great-quality appeal, taste and nutrition students love.
Our Healthy Planet pillar focuses on creating a more sustainable world for students to learn, grow and thrive. Our ethos is built around reducing our carbon footprint by embedding sustainability in every meal we serve.
This includes increasing the number of ingredients we source locally in the UK – such as potatoes from Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk and carrots from Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire – and tackling food waste through redistribution and repurposing schemes such as Olio and Olleco – enabling us to save a total of 239,000kg of CO2 from food waste.
In 2024/25, this ethos led us to substitute plant-based proteins – including peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas and cauliflower – into our most popular main meal meat-based dishes of which we collectively sell over one million portions of every year. These changes enabled us to eliminate nearly 400,000kg of CO2 from our menus – delivering a powerful environmental impact with meals that are better for the planet, better for students’ health and still just as popular on the plate.
“Food production is a significant contributor to climate change, accounting for nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some foods generate more greenhouse gas than others: food from animals make up two-thirds of all agricultural GHG emissions and use more than three-quarters of agricultural land. Plant-based foods generally have a much lower environmental impact. Enjoying more plant-based foods is an important way to reduce pressure on the climate.”
Find out more at the World Resources Institute.
It also led us to invest in recyclable, reusable and compostable food packaging and solutions with higher recycled-content to cut virgin plastic use and divert waste from landfill. In 2024/25, we increased recyclability to nearly 100%, compostable packaging to 66% and recycled-content to 40%. We also eliminated over 589,500 plastic bottles and cans through our partnership with Generation Juice and diverted almost 17,250kg of waste from landfill by switching to a new recyclable coffee cup.
Project Showcase: The Hazeley Academy Vegetable Garden
The Hazeley Academy’s Vegetable Garden has so much potential to inspire students by giving them the opportunity to touch, grow, and understand where their food comes from. It’s a brilliant way to spark real curiosity about food - while giving students ownership of the garden helps them to foster that vital connection between food, nature and biodiversity, and what ends up on their plate. My big dream is to grow this into something bigger. Vegetable patches, herb gardens, and gardening and growing clubs are a key part of our ‘Something Growing’ initiative - our dedicated social impact fund that helps schools to invest in amazing school community-based projects - just like this one!
THRIVING PEOPLE & COMMUNITIES
Great impact that delivers great outcomes.
Our Thriving People & Communities pillar is about delivering great outcomes for students, schools, colleagues and communities. Our ethos centres around championing food equity, accessibility and participation, creating impact that extends beyond the dining hall, and celebrating the passion and purpose of our people who deliver impact with every meal they serve.
In 2024/25, this included delivering ‘Perfect Site’ training, ‘Did You Know’ and ‘Free School Meal’ campaigns, and Makaton training for SEND inclusivity – and welcoming 470 Sixth Form students into our kitchens and serveries, supporting many more through Challenge Day events, interview skills workshops, and delivering hundreds of school-led social impact projects in 2024/25.
We were also proud to support our 4,400 employees to learn and grow – training the next generation of chefs and leaders. In 2024/25, 106 employees were enrolled on apprenticeships, including our Level 7 Women in Leadership Course – with options undertake our Manager in Training Course or engage in six qualifications offered through the IFG Academy as part of a non-apprenticeship route.
We also celebrated their passion and commitment through our ‘Making an Impact’ Reward Scheme – celebrating 818 monthly winners, 37 quarterly winners and 14 annual winners in 2024/25.
“Good job satisfaction, good team to work with and I feel my voice is heard and listened to!”
“As a unit manager, I am very willing to support my company to get further.”
“I am very happy at work because I have good people that work around me and help me!”
“I do the baking and am also on the till at break times. Baking is my favourite thing to do and I love the interaction with the kids!”
Feedback from our annual employee Happiness Survey
Interested in more info on our Impact+ Report?
Contact us at [email protected] to request a copy.
