Fresh Start Catering Nourishing Young Minds with Delicious, Home-Cooked Meals

Established 2007

With over 18 years of experience, Fresh Start Catering is a leading provider of delicious and nutritious school meals to primary schools across Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Buckinghamshire.

We believe that good food is essential for learning and development, and we’re committed to making lunchtime a highlight of the school day.

What sets us apart

Freshly Prepared, From Scratch

Our experienced chefs cook all meals from scratch, on-site, every day, using fresh, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. We even bake our own bread!

Commitment to Community

We’re dedicated to integrating into your school community, collaborating on events, and providing services like staff lunches and Taster Events.

School Trips

Informing Fresh Start of upcoming trips, parents can order packed lunches through Meal Manager for trip days.

Delicious and Nutritious

We offer a variety of menus that meet all school food standards, ensuring pupils receive a balanced and nutritious diet. Our Table d’hôte dining provides a fixed-price meal with a choice of four main courses, a delicious deli bar featuring fresh salads, proteins, and homemade bread, plus a dessert or a medley of freshly diced fruits.

Meal Manager

Our bespoke online system, Meal Manager, makes ordering and paying for meals easy and convenient. Parents can manage their child’s meals, track payments, and receive important updates all in one place; meaning your school reduces administrative tasks.

The Deli Bar

A Fresh Start Exclusive: One of the things that sets Fresh Start Catering apart is our unique Deli Bar. This gives primary school children the opportunity to create their own delicious and healthy wraps, and salads with a variety of fresh fillings. It’s a fun and interactive way to encourage children to make healthy choices and explore new flavours.

Theme Days

Beyond everyday meals, we offer immersive dining experiences that link to the school curriculum. For events like National Book Day, we design themed menus to enhance learning and spark children’s imaginations. Plus, lucky Fresh Start Diners might even find a Golden Ticket in their lunch!

Fresh Start Menus

Hungry to see what’s cooking? Check out our Menus page for a sneak peek at the delicious and nutritious Table d’hôte meals we create each week.

Our values

Freshness

We use only the freshest ingredients.

Quality

We are committed to providing high-quality food and service.

Sustainability

We source locally and minimise waste.

Child-centred

We put the needs of pupils first.

Our mission

To provide healthy, nutritious, and exciting food that fuels young minds and inspires a lifelong love of good food.

Our Reviews

Don't just take our word for it – hear from schools who love Fresh Start Catering.

We are very happy with Fresh Start as our caterers at school. There are plenty of options from hot food, jacket potatoes to the cold deli option. All dietary requirements are catered for. For us, the deli option has proved to be very popular. It means the children can have a freshly made sandwich, wrap or roll for example with a range of fillings. These are made half an hour before the children eat them so could not be fresher. The range of hot food types are also impressive. They are well prepared and nutritionally balanced, encouraging children to try new things they may not have tried at home. The take up for Fresh Start food is around 80% of the population which reflects in itself how popular the choices are.

As a Trust of 4 large primary schools in Northamptonshire we are proud to work with our chosen caterers Fresh Start who provide fresh, healthy, nourishing food, exciting menus and an impeccable service. The Fresh Start team provide a friendly professional catering provision, and we are proud to work with them and do not have any hesitation in recommending Fresh Start.”

As a School, we have used Fresh Start now for a number of years. We are lucky enough to have the food prepared on site and it is very tasty and very popular with the Children. The menus are healthy and nutritious and offer plenty of variety whilst remaining cost effective. The Customer Service from Head Office is also very good. I would have no hesitation recommending Fresh Start.

See Fresh Start in action!

In addition to providing references, we can arrange for you to visit one of our partner schools and see our food service in operation. You can observe lunchtime, talk to our staff, and even speak with pupils about their Fresh Start dining experience.

Taster Events

We hold taster events annually in all our partner schools, as well as before launching our service in a new school. These events allow the school community to sample our delicious food, learn more about our services, and meet with members of the Fresh Start team.

Allergens

Learn about Fresh Start school meals, including how we manage allergies and cater to special diets.

Need a new caterer?

Looking for a fresh start with your school meals?

Fresh Start Catering is the primary school specialist. Contact us today to transform your school lunches with delicious, nutritious meals your pupils will love.