The Missing Pound

How supply chain transparency can
change the case for better school meals

As the new school year gets underway, millions of children across England will sit down to a meal that is partly or fully funded by the taxpayer. We know how much government spends on school meals. What is less well understood is the extent to which that money funds high quality meals or the social, economic and environmental outcomes it delivers further down the food supply chain. Around £1 of every school meal is spent on food ingredients – that’s hundreds of millions of pounds of public money each year yet government currently has little or no visibility of where or how that is spent. This might sound like just an accounting problem but, in reality, it is one of the biggest barriers to improving school food.

The pressure on school funding

For years, campaigners, caterers and nutrition advocates have called for more school meal funding. They are right to. In addition to food price inflation, labour and energy costs have increased significantly without an associated increase in the funding received for the meals. Many schools and caterers are under critical pressure with local authorities exiting catering, operators going bust or schools having to subsidise meal provision from budgets intended for education.

The School Food Review, released in June 2026, points out that this pressure is not being felt equally across the system. Large schools benefit from economies of scale whereas smaller schools often do not. The cost of staffing a kitchen, maintaining equipment and receiving deliveries exists regardless of how many meals are served.

"Structural factors such as minimum staffing requirements and fixed operational costs result in higher per-meal costs, with financial break-even typically not achieved until pupil numbers reach around 200-225."

Reference: School Food Review, June 26

The School Food Review advocates for a modest ‘small school subsidy’ of £73.5 million to enable them to implement the wider Free School Meals commitment made by the government from September onwards. The School Food Review also recommends that funding arrangements should include "specific transparency and reporting requirements covering decision making on school food provision, procurement and tendering arrangements, and the routine publication of take up data."

Given the government’s commitment to the manifesto pledge to divert 50% of all public sector food procurement spending to local or sustainable producers, it is now essential that transparency is also extended beyond the school gate to the farm gate.

Why transparency matters

Schools need to be enabled, with minimal effort, to demonstrate how funding has been used because governments need proof that their investment is improving outcomes. Taxpayers should be able to see the impact of public spending. And this should include understanding what is happening throughout the wider food supply chain. How much of the food budget reaches British farmers? How much supports SME regional suppliers? What evidence exists that procurement decisions are contributing to sustainability goals? Without this data, the case for increased funding is weakened. Treasury officials are asked every day to support programmes that claim economic, environmental and social benefits.

Unsurprisingly, the Treasury’s famous ‘Green Book’ demands proof. Every department competing for public funding is expected to demonstrate outcomes. School food should be no different. If policymakers can show how investment improves children’s health, supports British agriculture, strengthens local economies and delivers environmental benefits, the case for future investment becomes significantly stronger. We must enable school food to provide it.

The good news? The technology already exists to make this possible

Specialist digital food supply chain platforms like our own AgileChain are already in use (Reference: The Buying Better Food and Drink Agreement by The Government Commercial Agency), providing greater visibility of where food comes from, how it was produced and the environmental outcomes this delivers. Combine this with the reporting at school level called for by the School Food Review, and policymakers would have a much clearer understanding of the relationship between funding, provision and impact. This would provide policymakers with the evidence needed to assess the case for future funding increases.

In my conversations with government departments on this, they are rightly always acutely aware of the importance of keeping things light and simple for schools, caterers and the supply chain. Transparency must not become additional bureaucracy. Yet, they have too often turned to one-off surveys to try to see through the murky picture – mistakenly in my view. An ongoing sustainable tech solution is the answer. One that can be used all of the time, running in the background using automation that means close to zero ongoing human effort.

Making the Missing Pound count

Better data allows funding to be targeted where it is most needed and to deliver the greatest impact. It enables policymakers to understand which interventions are working and it strengthens the evidence base for future investment.

The whole UK population, not just schoolchildren, depends on the £5 billion spent on public sector food and catering delivering outcomes beyond the meals themselves. We need the missing £1 spent on ingredients to support greater food security and resilience; profitable, sustainable British farming; and changes on farms that improve soil, water and biodiversity while reducing the carbon intensity of production. The government needs to see the missing pound it already spends so that it can evaluate future funding decisions.

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Rich Osborn, Chief Executive, Equilibrium Markets.

AgileChain is already helping organisations gain greater visibility across their food supply chains. Find out more here.