The event will bring together industry professionals to discuss key issues facing school food provision, with a focus on funding disparities and ensuring high-quality meals for all children.
Addressing key challenges in school catering
The programme and features at the 2025 Main Event will address the disparities in school meals funding across the nations and explore strategies to ensure that all children receive the best school food to support their growth and learning.
LACA believes that it has never been more important to establish common ground and a collective voice on the importance of school food and the growing pressures operators are facing to provide this vital service.
Delegates booking places for the Main Event will have access to a variety of engaging sessions, including Forum speaker presentations, LACA Live demonstrations, interactive workshops, and the LACA School Food Show exhibition. Early bird booking rates are available for full members until Friday 25th April 2025.
Day one of LACA Main Event Forum
The LACA Main Event Forum will kick-off in the King’s Suite on Tuesday 8th July at 2pm when Forum chair and LACA vice chair Michael Hales will give attendees an introduction to the Main Event and play the year in focus video. Judith Gregory, chair of LACA, will also provide an update on the free school breakfast club initiative.
A Four Nations panel will highlight what differs across the UK but also what individual nations are doing to improve the service and deal with the difficulties they encounter. It will involve Anita Brown (England), Judith Gregory (Wales), Nicki Joiner (Scotland) and Colm Bradley (Northern Ireland).
Dr Sam Mudie will host a session titled ‘Managing Scope 1 & 2 emissions and saving schools £millions’. She will explain how and what school caterers need to do to achieve these results.
To finish the first day of the Main Event Forum Professor Giles Yeo will deliver a keynote session titled ‘Why calories don’t count’. He will explore this further in the context of school food, but also look at genetics and ultra processed foods and their impact on obesity and a healthy diet.
Day two of LACA Main Event Forum (morning)
To start day two of the Main Event Forum a representative from the National Governors Association (NGA) will give their views on monitoring compliance to School Food Standards as well as explaining why investing in children’s health matters.
Professor Don Bundy and Professor Kevin Morgan will join forces to share their thoughts, research and experiences of school food in a UK and global context. The session will highlight the challenges the UK faces and what we can learn from the services that are delivered locally and around the world.
The annual survey of parental views on the school food service is now a vital benchmarking process for LACA. Parentpay will share the results and Judith Gregory will give an update on the LACA Cost of Living research.
Charlie Hodson, an ambassador for Hospitality Action, will talk about his journey and also how to spot the signs in your colleagues who are suffering and need support.
Day two of LACA Main Event Forum (afternoon)
The Government want the public sector to buy 50% of all its food from UK/local sources. A panel will explore the benefits of sourcing in the UK, the challenges and the options. The panel includes Myles Bremner; Bethan Cowell – NFU; Cathy Amos – Love British Food/Brakes and Katie Palmer, Foodsense Wales.
Victoria Humphries, who was part of the first all-female team to walk to the North Pole, will discuss her experiences in the Arctic as well as how be resilient in the face of adversity.
As a food futurologist Morgaine Gaye is passionate about what she does because food affects us all - what we eat and what we buy. She will host the final session of the Main Event Forum on Future Food Trends.