Primary Schools
At Feeding Hungry Minds, we believe that it is every child's right, not privilege to be able to eat a lunch that is freshly prepared everyday using quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients. The food we serve and the environment we serve it in really matters.
Providing a simple but popular meal that balances climate, health, and nature, with affordability gives us a unique opportunity to help close that gap a little bit more, by creating a remarkable experience for each of our diners, irrelevant of their background or circumstance.
Planet-friendly plates
We're redefining school meals — ensuring every plate not only fuels young minds but also supports a more sustainable future.
Children need balanced, nutritious meals to thrive — supporting their learning, growth, and overall wellbeing. At the same time, the food they eat can have a profound impact on the planet. That’s why we bring together innovative thinking and environmentally conscious practices, so every school meal nurtures both children’s health and a healthier world.
Creating Healthy Eating Habits
Coolfood: Our low-carbon footprint promise
We’re proud to be the first primary school caterer in the world to offer meals accredited by Coolfood — an initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI) that certifies low-carbon meals.
These innovative, plant-rich meals have been thoughtfully designed with young palates in mind, transforming everyday school lunches into a delightful adventure of vibrant flavours and fun, child-approved recipes while educating children about low-carbon choices to foster sustainable habits from an early age.
In keeping with ISS’s “Small change, big impact” approach, these meals demonstrate how simple it is to make significant changes by effortlessly swapping choices, reducing the climate footprint of schools, and inspiring young people to help build a more sustainable future.
ProVeg and our planet-rich days
We’re also delighted to collaborate with ProVeg, an organisation championing plant-rich diets in schools. Together, we’re driving meaningful change in children’s eating habits - supporting their immediate wellbeing while laying the foundation for lifelong healthy and sustainable choices.
On our plant-rich days we focus more on foods that come from plants, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and pulses, while reducing the amount of meat served to:
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Support children’s health by offering nutritious, balanced meals
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Introduce a wider variety of tasty, plant-based foods
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Help reduce our environmental impact by lowering the carbon footprint of school meals
Read more about the benefits of plant-rich food here.
Bang In Some Beans
We are the first contract caterer to make a pledge to The Food Foundation and Veg Power’s ‘Bang in Some Beans’ campaign and were announced as a Keen Bean Pledger during the Beans Summit in November 2025- aiming to increase our bean procurement by 20%. We will be driving activity to encourage our customers to choose more meals containing beans through a range of initiatives including education, tastings and incorporating beans into more meals and across more menus.
Award-Winning Food Choices
Our commitment to top-notch food standards is reflected in our menu choices, inspired by the Food For Life Served Here Award principles.
Our menus are refreshed twice a year, each time filled with exciting, healthy, and flavour-packed choices. We actively listen to both student and parent feedback, using their insights to shape and refine our offerings so they better reflect preferences, dietary needs, and evolving tastes. This ensures our menus stay relevant, inclusive, and genuinely enjoyable for everyone we serve.
Our seasonal menu features a variety of nutritious, tasty, and plant-rich options- designed to deliver essential nutrients and offer something every child will enjoy. Children eating with us consume, on average, 5.1 portions of fruit and vegetables daily, helping to support balanced diets and healthy development. A diet rich in plant-based foods not only benefits children’s physical health, but also helps reduce the environmental impact of school meals. That’s why an average of 57% of our main courses are vegetarian or plant-based, and around 40% feature beans and pulses.
We also take a flexible approach to traditional favourites by reducing some of the meat content in dishes such as Bolognese or chilli con carne and replacing it with beans and lentils- boosting fibre, increasing protein diversity, and maintaining delicious flavours. By introducing more plant-forward choices, we’re encouraging healthier habits while contributing to a more sustainable future.
Take a look at our sample menu for this season to see what's on offer:
The Lunchtime Adventure
We love celebrating school food through exciting pop-up days in our dining halls!
These themed days spark student interest and offer a chance to discover new dishes and explore a variety of flavours. Whether we're promoting healthy lifestyles, linking to curriculum topics, or marking national celebrations, there's a unique event planned for every month of the year.
Our Quality Promise
The Food For Life Served Here Award provides excellent guidelines on food standards, which is why we base our menus on its principles.
It provides an independent endorsement that food providers taking steps to improve the food they serve, using fresh ingredients which are free from trans fats, harmful additives and GM, and better for animal welfare.
The Soil Association, who run the scheme, regularly audit our accredited menus to ensure that they meet high standards of provenance and traceability, are freshly prepared using environmentally sustainable and seasonal ingredients.
Find out more about Food For Life here.
Supporting Children's Dietary Needs
We’re passionate about children’s health and inclusive mealtimes. That’s why we offer tailored menus for children with medically diagnosed dietary requirements. Our nutrition team works closely with schools to ensure meals are safe, nutritious, and familiar - helping children enjoy food alongside their peers.
We also provide nutritional information for conditions like diabetes across all menu options.
To learn more, please contact your school reception.
For a copy of our medical dietary safeguarding policies and procedures contact nutrition@uk.issworld.com
Passionate About Inclusivity
In a world where children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are too often overlooked, our team has gone above and beyond to create something truly special.
We’ve developed a dedicated cookery life skills programme designed exclusively for SEND children — bringing joy, confidence, and connection to those who are often left out.
This isn’t an adaptation of an existing model — it’s a purpose-built solution, crafted from the ground up to meet the unique needs of SEND learners. The programme places children at the heart of the experience, empowering them to express themselves through food, while proud families cheer them on every step of the way.
Rooted in food education, every activity is thoughtfully designed to be achievable, no matter the child’s starting point. It’s about celebrating progress, nurturing independence, and creating moments of pride and belonging.
For more information, please contact your school catering team.
Roots For The Future
Our award-winning Education Health & Wellbeing programme, Roots for the Future, is built upon the wider ISS Health & Wellbeing strategy commitments. Split into three distinct pillars, For You, For Life and For the Planet, our programme is tailored to the unique needs of our young customers - whether at school, home or beyond.
Every child deserves the opportunity to learn. Within this programme we support our catering teams with resources they can use in schools to help run workshops and presentations and working with various partners and suppliers to deliver exciting activities promoting wellbeing and skills to take through life.
Online Ordering and Payments
Most of our sites use an online system that allows parents to pre-order meals and manage payments with ease.
To find out if your child’s school is using our Order and Pay system, please speak to the school reception.
To register or log in to the online ordering and payment portal, simply click the button below.
