Dolce’s sustainable food wins a ProVeg Silver School Plates Award

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve won a ProVeg Silver School Plates award for our healthy and sustainable summer menus, that were served in schools during May-July 2026.

The ProVeg School Plates Awards are a national accreditation scheme recognising nutritious and eco-friendly menus. Launched in 2023, the Awards aim to set the standards for low-carbon menus across UK schools and recognise the positive steps taken by caterers to create healthier, climate-friendly menus.

To be eligible for an award, caterers must take various steps to promote plant-based school meals, which produce significantly less carbon than meat-based dishes. The dishes must be nutritionally-balanced and, of course, tasty, while also encouraging children to opt for more sustainable choices at lunchtime.

Working with ProVeg UK, a non-profit organisation, our summer school menu included a wide range of delicious, planet-friendly dishes that the pupils love. Dishes included Golden Plant Powered Loaf, Sri Lankan Curry, Summer Pesto Pasta and Moroccan Rainbow Tagine. We offered plant-based options in all main menu items including jacket potatoes, sandwiches, rolls and baguettes. ProVeg posters were also printed and displayed on our counters helping children to make the connection between their food and its impact on the planet.

Neil Price, Head of Food at Dolce, said: “We’re very happy to achieve a Silver standard menu for the pupils we serve. Happy, healthy children are our priority, and the ProVeg UK recipes are both good for the children and for our planet too. The team at ProVeg have been very supportive and are doing incredible work to make plant-based food easy and accessible. This means we’re able to reach our sustainability goals whilst maintaining a tasty and nutritious menu.”

Alex Jemison, School Plates Awards Coordinator at ProVeg UK, said: “We’re thrilled to acknowledge the great work Dolce is doing to create healthier and more sustainable menus. Dolce is not only improving childrens’ health, they are also protecting their future. In the midst of a global climate crisis, reducing food emissions has never been more pressing, so it’s heartwarming to see how much effort and care has gone into this wonderful example of a more climate-friendly, delicious menu.”

It’s been an exciting year for Dolce and our sustainability work. Earlier this year we announced partnerships with Olio and ReFood, helping to further reduce food waste across the schools we work with. Then in June, we launched the UK’s first-ever ‘zero food waste’ school lunch initiative – our Wasteless Plate campaign.

We’re continuing our sustainability work and will share more news in the coming months!

The Dolce team