Less time on administration
Reduce repeated matching and spreadsheet work to lower administration costs and free staff to focus on children and families.
School meals · Family support · Opportunity
MealConnect
A school meal should start with entitlement. Not paperwork.
Connecting eligible children to free school meals and helping councils reach families who may otherwise be missed.
Governed by councils. Designed around families.
Why it exists
Entitled to support. Still missing out.
Applications and fragmented processes can leave eligible children behind and stretch public resources. MealConnect is designed to turn entitlement into access and reduce administration costs so verified savings can be redirected towards supporting more children and tackling child poverty.
Save money. Support more children.
Reduce duplicated effort and unnecessary administration costs. Reinvest verified savings into meals and wider support for more children while helping schools identify the funding attached to entitlement.
Reach children who are missed
Find potentially eligible children without relying only on a family knowing when and how to apply.
Support beyond term time
Build towards joined-up access to Holiday Activities and Food and other meal programmes.
These are intended benefits. Net cost savings and additional access will be evaluated during an agreed pilot before any savings are committed to wider support.
Built in the North East for the UK
One shared foundation. Three horizons.
The FinPact discussion note describes process mapping with practitioners and a proposed research evaluation. It makes the case for a regional approach rather than each council building its own solution.
- 01Build the school meals foundation
- 02Research for good across trusted organisations
- 03Grow a wider support network
A proposal for collaboration. Pilot sponsorship and participation are not confirmed.