Dolce Schools Catering: Putting pupils, people and progress at the heart of school dining

Dolce Schools Catering is a family-founded firm specialising exclusively in education catering, built on the same core values it began with: quality fresh food, exceptional service, and a people-first culture supported by innovative digital systems. 

Growth and award-wins

From its early days serving a handful of schools, Dolce has grown significantly and now caters for one in every 20 schools across England, with strong and accelerating growth in Wales.

That success has not gone unnoticed. In 2025, Dolce was named Contract Caterer of the Year at the Public Sector Catering Awards. The company also secured the top position in the first ever School Contract Caterer Ranking by ProVeg UK in 2025, recognising Dolce as the most planet-friendly school caterer in the country. With a growing need for caterers to prioritise health and sustainability, the ranking makes it easy for schools to choose a caterer that aligns with their planet-friendly goals. 
 
Nurturing talent and its people

But Dolce’s growth story is not defined purely by contracts – it’s shaped by people. The company has a long-standing reputation for nurturing talent from within and offering clear pathways for progression. Charlotte Walkden joined the business in an admin role and rose to become HR Director by the age of 30. Claire Oldfield began as a school cook and, within a decade, progressed to Operations Director, now helping shape strategy across the organisation. This commitment to developing people fosters loyalty, builds deep sector expertise, and ensures that pupils benefit from passionate teams who know school catering inside out.

Reinventing the approach to school food

Innovation has always been one of Dolce’s defining qualities. The company introduced roast dinner day to school menus - now a nationwide staple - and pioneered online pre-ordering and cashless payment systems in primary schools nearly 25 years ago. Dolce later created digital weigh-out technology to tackle food waste, and these advances have earned multiple awards, including a Catey Award for Best Use of Technology and an EDUcatering Award for Innovation. 

Today, Dolce’s digital platforms not only streamline operations for schools but also bring families directly into the dining experience, allowing parents to explore recipes, plan meals and even take part in online cookery classes.

A design and fit-out service

Dolce also goes beyond food by offering a full, in-house dining-area design and fit-out service. This holistic approach has delivered impressive results – one of Dolce’s recent fit-outs saw a Welsh high school achieve a 98% Free School Meal uptake and 76% uptake among paying students - far above national averages.

A clear future direction

As the company continues to expand, its founding principles remain unchanged: put pupils first, support schools wholeheartedly and invest in people. It is a formula that has transformed school dining and continues to deliver meaningful impact for communities across the UK.