Food Explorers

Every Food Explorer menu is made up of tasty dishes packed full of nutrients, with each meal offering Food Explorers at least 3 of their 5 a day.

Our theme days offer lots of new flavours to explore and include competitions for pupils to win Food Explorer prizes.

Most of our schools will offer three choices of a Food Explorer hot main meal, including a vegetarian or vegan option, a selection of pasta pots, jacket potatoes or a sandwich.

Every Food Explorer is offered vegetables, side salad, bread and drinking water with their main meal. For dessert, fresh fruit and yoghurt is offered as an alternative to the homemade dessert of the day.

Our menus...

Our menus are on a three-week cycle and change every six months; after the Easter holidays to our Spring/Summer menu and after October half-term to our Autumn/Winter menu.

Click on the links below for our Autumn / Winter Food Explorer menus

Autumn Winter 2024 - Week 1
Autumn Winter 2024 - Week 2
Autumn Winter 2024 - Week 3

Autumn Winter 2024 - Poster

Theme Days:

To coincide with our menu, monthly Food Explorer theme days promotions are organised.

The special theme days are developed to correspond with the Food Explorer brand or national events. The promotions aim to spark children's curiosity and encourage conversations, whilst providing enjoyment for pupils of all ages.

Autumn Winter Theme Day Promotions

National School Meals Week
11th - 15th November
Join us as we celebrate everything great about our school meals

Christmas Party Menu
Get in to the festive sprit with our Christmas Party, this year with a Pantomine theme!

Christmas Dinner Poster
Join us for our Traditional Christmas Dinner with all of the trimmings

Journey Around the World
16th January
Join us as we travel across the World to explore new meals

If music be the food of love
14th February
Join us as we explore the playwrite William Shakespeare

World Book Day Poster
6th March
Bring your favourite book to school and discuss what you like about the story with your fellow pupils

News

National School Meals Week 2024

As we start the new school year, we are inviting all schools supplied by Derbyshire Catering Service to join our National School Meals Week Celebration.

The week aims to highlight the importance of a well-balanced school meal, to support a child with their mental wellbeing, as well as their physical and academic growth.

We have a brilliant line up of guests visiting schools, including local MP’s and council directors. The guests are invited to join pupils within a school for a meal, while meeting with the catering team to understand some of the challenges the industry faces.

Journey Around the World 2025

What a brilliant way to kick off 2025, our Journey Around the World theme day, took the children on a food journey discovering new tastes and meals.

Its so encouraging to hear that the pupils who were unsure about aspects of the meal, tried and enjoyed it, especially the Mississippi Mud Pie, which sounds like such a treat!

This has been described as the BEST THEME DAY EVER!