Plymouth’s much-loved school meals provider CATERed, known for serving thousands of fresh and locally sourced meals every day, is set to close after more than a decade of service.
The company says the ongoing cost of living crisis and a major shortfall in Government funding for free school meals have made it impossible to continue.
10,000 Meals a Day Set to End by 2026
CATERed, which delivers over 10,000 hot meals a day to nearly 60 schools across Plymouth, will continue operating until July 2026.
Its community meals service, relied on by vulnerable residents, will end much sooner in February 2026.
A Unique Local Success Story
Created in 2015 as a cooperative owned by Plymouth schools and Plymouth City Council, CATERed built a national reputation for:
- Fresh, seasonal, locally sourced ingredients
- Working with Plymouth growers, fishers and suppliers
- High-quality, freshly prepared school lunches
- A model where schools pooled budgets to ensure every child received a hot meal
The company has won numerous national awards and is the only cooperative school food provider of its kind in the UK.
Why CATERed Can’t Continue
Like many other catering and hospitality providers, CATERed has faced huge financial pressures since COVID, including:
- Soaring food prices
- Higher energy costs
- Rising staffing costs
- Fewer local authority maintained schools, reducing shared funding
CATERed is now projecting a significant deficit.
Plymouth City Council stepped in with emergency support to help the service survive until the end of this academic year, but says it cannot continue funding due to its own budget pressures, particularly rising social care and homelessness costs.
Schools also say they cannot add more funding without cutting into essential education budgets.
Schools Now Need Alternative Providers
Because providing school meals is a legal responsibility of school governing bodies, schools must now find new suppliers or bring catering in-house before September 2026. Most CATERed kitchen staff are expected to transfer to whichever provider their school chooses.
‘Hugely Proud’ Managing Director Responds
Brad Pearce Photo: LACA
Brad Pearce, managing director of CATERed, said:
“All of us at CATERed are hugely proud of what we have achieved together over the last 10 years. We have always been highly ambitious about raising standards of school meals provision and have strived to always provide high quality, appetising meals using fresh, seasonal, local and organic ingredients.
“Sadly, the financial climate has been increasingly challenging in the last few years and with the additional costs we are now facing it is no longer possible to break even. I know that other providers across England are also ceasing services and closing.
“We will be so sorry to say goodbye to our community meals customers at the end of February but, in the meantime, we will be working with the council to support them in finding alternatives ways to meet their needs.”
For mroe information visit the Catered section of the Plymouth Council website.
