Procurement for Good team reports back from the 2025 Public Sector Catering Expo in Warwickshire.

This year’s Public Sector Catering Expo took place at the National Agricultural and Exhibition Centre at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire – just a handy trip up the road for a few Coventry colleagues.

The 2-day event saw people involved in catering across schools, hospitals, universities, care homes, prisons, armed forces and other public sector settings coming together to share learning, network and hear from leading voices within the industry.

Clearly lots of business development opportunities over the two-day event, with stalls and stands marketing everything from procurement frameworks, sustainability measurement tools, fresh, chilled and ambient food, allergen and nutrition label makers, to ‘home baked’ goods for sale in public canteens (and a lot of other highly processed products…). There were some lively cooking demonstrations and a talk from Aramark, sharing findings from their new Feeding the Future Forces report, which explores Gen Z’s expectations, based on data from their military customers.

There was a notable lack of representation from producers. To our eyes we found just one, proudly showcasing fresh produce on their stand; Dunsters Farm, a wholesale foodservice partner, supplying the education, healthcare and hospitality sectors to the North of England for over 60 years.

There was, however, a rousing talk by Welsh sheep and beef farmer, Gareth Wyn-Jones, who told the audience that “to build a better Britain it starts with our bellies” and drove home the huge opportunity and willingness from British farmers to get British food on the public plate. And here he is reflecting on the day on his YouTube channel. He also points out that despite the National Farmers Union head offices being located at the Stoneleigh grounds, there was no representation from them, or other farming bodies such as the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

Following Gareth’s impassioned speech, the heads of the key national catering associations gave a ‘State of the Nation’ address, summarising the key wins, challenges and obstacles in their sectors. A key take home message was that public sector catering is deeply misunderstood across the board and its potential is probably not fully recognised by government (and possibly farmers and food producers…?) For example, it was noted that none of the national public sector catering organisations sit on the Government’s Food Strategy Advisory Board, launched in March this year.  We were reminded that the Public Sector Catering alliance make 2.6 billion meals a year. This represents a huge opportunity to bolster a nutritious, sustainable and resilient food system that works for everyone.

If we’re going to bridge the gap and ‘fix the missing middle’, as per Sustain’s recent Bridging the Gap report, we need closer links between caterers, procurement teams and producers. This is something that Procurement for Good is actively working towards.

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