Tender

Free Breakfast Club Programme Food Partnering Open Call - Academic Year 26/27

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Tender

31 Mar 2026 at 13:28

Tender Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Education has issued an open call for the Free Breakfast Club Programme Food Partnering for the academic year 2026/27. This procurement seeks to engage food providers to support schools delivering the programme across England. The initiative aims to bolster primary education by offering nutritious meals to children and is classified under school meals in the goods category. The tender is currently at the 'tender' stage, with proposals for partnership required by 5th May 2026. The programme will run from June 2026 through July 2027 across various regions including London, North East, and the Midlands.

This tender provides a growth opportunity for businesses specialising in food provision, particularly those capable of offering cost-effective and reliable services suitable for school environments. With the Department for Education investing £80 million to expand the programme, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs) are encouraged to participate. The partnering approach seeks to emphasise local business collaboration and value addition in breakfast provision, making it an attractive opportunity for companies with strategic interests in national educational projects.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Free Breakfast Club Programme Food Partnering Open Call - Academic Year 26/27

Notice Description

The free breakfast club programme is one of the Department for Education's flagship policies, central to the Government's mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child. Once fully implemented, it will deliver a free breakfast club in every primary school in England, giving millions of children the chance to start the day supported and ready to learn. Evidence shows that where schools run breakfast clubs, they report improvements to pupils' behaviour, attendance and attainment. The free breakfast club programme will mean every school, every child, and every family has the chance to receive those benefits. Since April 2025, we have funded c.750 schools to offer a free breakfast club as early adopters, delivering 7 million meals so far. Following the success of the early adopters, we are moving to national rollout investing a further PS80m into the programme to fund an additional c.2,000 schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around half a million more children. We invited schools with a 40% or higher Free School Meal (FSM) rate (or the most disadvantaged school in an area, whichever is lower) to apply to join the scheme in April 2026, getting the benefits to those who need them most, first. National rollout will then continue in September 2026, when more schools will open their free breakfast clubs, taking the total to c.3000 schools. Business Collaboration Through the free breakfast club programme, schools are fully funded to deliver a 30-minute club each morning, giving parents free childcare whilst their children can enjoy a nutritious breakfast, however, there is room to increase the impact so children can start their day in the best possible way. We know there are already great partnerships happening locally between schools, businesses and industry. The Department is keen to explore how we could strengthen and scale these approaches nationally, to maximise impact and enable all participating schools to benefit in the same way. During the early adopter 'test and learn' phase, the Department partnered with organisations across industry to further strengthen the programme's impact and maximise schools' funding, with a particular focus on breakfast provision. Following an Open Call published in July 2025, we received four offers of varied discounts/deals from national supermarkets and charities. These offers have been available to our c.750 early adopter schools since November 2025 and have been extremely well received by participating schools. As the rollout of free breakfast club continues, we want to build on the success of the early adopter phase by continuing to partner with organisations across the industry to help maximise the support available to schools. Additional information: We are seeking offers from food providers that enable Participating Schools in the free breakfast club programme in the 2026/27 academic year to maximise the value of their food spending and enhance their breakfast provision for pupils. In return, the Department proposes to offer partners a package of rights, as detailed below. Any deals offered by the partner will not be mandated for Participating Schools to make use of and Participating Schools will retain flexibility and choice in how they procure their food. We know that Participating Schools source food for their free breakfast clubs from a wide range of food providers. This sponsorship is intended to leverage the profile of the programme at a national level to ensure all Participating Schools have access to the best value-for-money deals. We are also seeking to address challenges that Participating Schools face in ordering food, including ease of access and use of ordering systems, reliability of delivery, minimum order values and volume restrictions. This notice relates to an opportunity which is not subject to the Procurement Act 2023. Accordingly, this notice is published on a voluntary basis for transparency purposes and to encourage market interest in the relevant opportunity.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-b5fd17-e8479e06-aa67-45d1-b8c2-ef6a5e04c372
Publication Source
Contracts Finder
Latest Notice
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/8cd49f70-47c4-4c1b-8202-36946bfa20de
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Tender Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Other - Request for Offers
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

15 - Food, beverages, tobacco and related products

CPV Codes

15894210 - School meals

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
31 Mar 20263 days ago
Submission Deadline
5 May 20261 months to go
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
7 Jun 2026 - 30 Jul 2027 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Active
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1P 3BT
Post Town
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
TLC North East (England), TLD North West (England), TLE Yorkshire and The Humber, TLF East Midlands (England), TLG West Midlands (England), TLI London, TLJ South East (England), TLK South West (England)
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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