Ensuring sustainability of Sodexo’s school food in partnership with Oasis 

As OCL’s school meal provider, our main activity has been focused on reducing food waste and providing sustainable food options.  

• In June 2022, Elizabeth Axon was appointed as social responsibility and engagement manager specifically to help drive its initiatives across Oasis’ 48 primary and secondary academies in England.  
• Through its partnership with Klimato, carbon menu labelling was introduced to raise awareness amongst pupils and staff on the impact their food choices have on the planet through CO2e labelling. 
• Plant+ by Finer Diner, developed in conjunction with WWF-UK, was trialled to help students understand how small dietary changes can make a huge difference to the health of the planet and to encourage students and staff to adopt more plant-based meals as part of their diet. 
• Between September 2022 – August 2023, Sodexo’s WasteWatch food waste reduction programme, powered by LeanPath has reduced food waste by 43%, preventing 115 metric tonnes of CO2 and the equivalent of 30,249 meals. 

Sodexo and OCL were highly commended in the Sustainability in Education category at the Footprint Awards in recognition for their approach to embed sustainability across the contract. 

Our collective challenge

We all have a part to play in reducing the impact of our every day activities on the environment - including what we eat. That's why Sodexo has set a target of 33% of our menus offering plant-based choices worldwide and halving food waste across all its sites by 2025. 

As a provider of more than 100,000 school meals per day around the UK, Sodexo has a responsibility, and a desire, to promote sustainable food choices and play an active role in empowering our young people to choose more planet friendly dishes. 

Partnership working enables both Sodexo and OCL to reduce their carbon footprint.  

Shared objectives to build awareness through innovation and education

Our objectives were to: 

1. Boost engagement with students, parents, teaching staff and local communities, to encourage sustainable choices, by: 

• Utilising Sodexo’s Agents for Change network, which gives pupils a voice and ownership of their food offering and dining environment, to encourage greater pupil participation and tap into their imaginations to shape the improvements they want to see at their schools. 
• Deploying and developing creative, eye-catching, promotional artwork for the dining rooms such as pull up banners, bunting, flyers and pledge cards to encourage students to trial and make commitments. 
• Developing enthusiasm for new recipes, ensuring that they are similar to, or inspired by, student favourites whilst also giving consideration to cultural sensitivity and the diversity of ingredients. 

2. Promote plant-rich meals:

• Raise the awareness of the impact of dietary choices on the planet. 
• Promote the environmental benefits of eating plant-rich diets.  
• Inspire and engage food service and teaching staff on impacts of food choices on nature. 
• Increase the number of plant-based meals provided in school meal offer. 
• Encourage sampling of planet-based meal options. 
• Increase the number plant-based meals sold in schools. 

3. Prevent food waste: 

• Measure, manage, and reduce our food waste, all while prompting behavioural changes in our teams and driving better value for our clients. 

Initiatives delivering sustainable impact 

Over the last year or so a number of initiatives were introduced to engage, educate and inspire action from students and staff. 

Carbon menu labelling

Working in partnership with Klimato, Sodexo calculated the quantitative carbon footprint of each main course on its secondary school menu and created a traffic light system with ‘low-medium-high’ CO2e emissions labels so the students can see at-a-glance the environmental impact of each dish. 

Before launching carbon-labelled meals to all Oasis secondary academies, Sodexo carried out a pilot at two academies, Oasis Academy Arena in Croydon, south London and Oasis Academy MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. The trial results from the initial months of the trial show an increase in uptake of CO2e friendly options at both schools. 

During the pilot, the number of students choosing low carbon meals (0.1-0.5 kg CO2e) increased: 

• Oasis Academy MediaCityUK – 78% to 90% 
• Oasis Academy Arena – 71% to 88% 

The average kg CO2e per meal reduced at both academies** 

• Oasis Academy MediaCityUK – 0.6 to 0.4 
• Oasis Academy Arena – 0.5 to 0.4 

The results from the carbon labelling trial have helped inform ongoing menu development. High CO2e recipes such as cottage pie and beef lasagne have been reviewed, replacing part of the meat content with high quality plant-based protein alternatives. 

Plant+ by Finer Diner

Plant+ created plant-based alternatives to students’ favourite dishes. In addition, it educated them on the environmental and health benefits of eating more plant-based meals at school using impactful communications, learning materials, and Student Ambassadors. This created memorable experiences centred around delicious plant-based menus that could be replicated across the Sodexo school estate. 

To measure the success of the activity, we used a mix of quantitative and qualitative measurements. Data from the schools helped us to understand the number of plant-based dishes sold in the pilot and the number of tasting sessions held in each school. Post pilot surveys were conducted amongst the student ambassadors, catering staff and teachers, along with ad-hoc feedback via email to measure the success of the campaign. 

We found that every participating school said they had increased their plant-based food offering to some extent. It was clear from the interviews with catering managers and student surveys that the meals were well received by both teachers and students. Students who completed surveys gave an average score of 8.5/10 for the taste, improving from four before the pilot. 

In the catering manager interviews, the majority said that the Plant+ menu items will mostly be kept in their menus going forward, and that making and trying the food felt empowering. 

Chefs felt inspired to create their own plant-based recipes, adapting the recipes and using the techniques and ingredients they learned in the pilot, to create new plant-based menus to hold pupil interest. Some had targets for a certain proportion of their menus to be plant-based, and the Plant+ recipes fit well as part of this. 

WasteWatch food waste reduction programme

Wastewatch is a measurement system that allows kitchen staff to understand what’s thrown away, and why, in real-time. This enables them to easily identify efficiencies, and make informed choices about menus and operating procedures, all supported by data. 

Since September 2022, Sodexo teams at Oasis schools’ have prevented 115 metric tons of CO2 - the equivalent to 30,249 meals saved. 

WasteWatch has been embedded into day-to-day kitchen practice. The OCL family is looking forward to using the data collected by this technology to continue the reduction in food waste. Tracking statistics are being used as part of strategic planning and are being reviewed at Oasis’s sustainability forums. Onsite staff are also being encouraged to give more accurate advanced pre-order meal numbers to reduce prepared expired and over-production impact.  

These initiatives have been a huge success at Oasis academies, but we’re aware of the collective changes that still need to be made to improve our ongoing sustainability. We continue to refocus our priorities and work collaboratively together to make a positive difference in the fight against climate change and hunger.