Project to Improve School Food Procurement Practices 2026 Tender
In context
This is a contract notice published by a government body covering consulting. Delivery covers United Kingdom (Europe). It is classified under Food Systems against the sustainability taxonomy rather than matched on keywords.
This DEFRA tender seeks a supplier to improve school food procurement practices, supporting the public sector goal of more locally produced or higher-environmental-standard food. Bidders with food-systems, public procurement, or school catering expertise are best placed to respond.
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About this tender
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is procuring a contractor to design and deliver a project that improves school food procurement practices in England. The project supports the Government's public sector food procurement (PSFP) ambitions, under which half of public sector food is to be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards, subject to legal constraints. Schools account for roughly half of public sector food and catering spend, and most use external caterers, so the project aims to build procurement capability that enables robust specifications and supplier appointments that improve food quality, sustainability, nutrition (aligned with the School Food Standards) and pupil engagement, without driving up costs. The contractor is required to: design and deliver a project that improves school food procurement practices; establish a robust framework to monitor and report progress, including evaluation baselines where required; and generate evidence and insights to inform future education and PSFP activity. Defra has not prescribed the delivery approach and expects the contractor to apply professional judgement, identify effective options and consider innovation. Following appointment, the contractor will agree a detailed delivery plan with Defra. Defra has provisionally allocated £2 million RDEL over 15 months, based on comparable initiatives such as Food for Life Served Here.
Key requirements
- ✓Improve school food procurement practices in England for primary and secondary schools
- ✓Support the public sector food procurement goal of half of food being local or certified to higher environmental standards
- ✓Deliver enhanced food quality, sustainability, reduced food waste and pupil engagement with the food system
Relevant sectors
How this compares
- Compared with 23 similar tenders (food systems in United Kingdom) listed in the last 12 months.
- Its value of $2.5m is above 77% of the 22 similar tenders that state a value; their median is $950k.
- It allows 28 days to respond, shorter than the typical 35 days across 19 similar tenders.
- This is the only similar tender from this organisation listed here in the last 12 months.
Closest open tenders
Figures are computed from notices listed on Raise Lens in the same sector and country over the last 12 months.
About this sector
Food systems funding covers sustainable production, supply-chain resilience, food loss, nutrition and smallholder livelihoods. It is offered by agriculture and development agencies, multilateral programmes and foundations, often with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. Applicants are generally asked to show local partnerships and how benefits reach farmers or consumers.
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