Catering News is sponsored by The Kitchen Porters Club
School caterer Olive Dining has shown its support for the religious festival of Ramadan for another year, through its provision of food hampers during the holy month.
For 2026, the family-run business is offering a new and improved range of recipes and dishes every single week, designed to support those students and their families who are fasting.
For the remaining 10 days of Ramadan, children across London and the South East have access to 15 fresh and nutritious family-friendly recipes in addition to three ready-to-bake cookie kits, perfect for enjoying at home.
Each hamper includes ingredients for these meals, a recipe booklet with step-by-step cooking instructions, as well as QR codes linking to Olive Dining’s “cook along with us” videos to watch at home. These are packaged in reusable, branded Ramadan canvas bags, making it easy for students to take everything home.
Headquartered in Surrey, Olive Dining is committed to delivering a service rooted in nutrition, sustainability and community, ensuring an inclusive experience where every member of the school community feels valued and represented.
Stephanie Spratt, Founder and CEO of Olive Dining, confirmed: “At Olive Dining, we believe all young people deserve access to the foods and mealtime practices that are in line with their cultural or religious beliefs, both at school and at home.”
“Pupils who are fasting throughout Ramadan will not eat or drink between sunrise and sunset – in other words, during school hours. A lack of nutrition over this period of time can impact concentration and focus, so schools need to do all they can to support those who are participating.”
“Because of this, we created a hamper for Ramadan last year, providing these students with ingredients for a home cooked meal after school – complete with a recipe card and pre-recorded video of our Chefs sharing step-by-step cooking instructions. The programme was a huge success, with over 1,000 hampers provided to pupils each week, with 5,000+ distributed throughout the month.”
“This positive response meant that we wanted to offer an even better service this year, so we have rolled out our Ramadan hampers again – with some added extras. We take pride in being an inclusive caterer, supporting all students and members of the school community through quality, freshly prepared and nutritious meals whilst meeting cultural and religious food requirements.”
Since this year’s initiative launched on 17th February, more hampers have already been distributed compared to last year, with this number expected to continue rising until the end of Ramadan.
Olive Dining is continuing to promote its hampers across regional communities, including in local mosques, to spread awareness of the initiative and allow families to sign up to receive the kits.
Founded by Stephanie Spratt and Chris Whitter in 2012, Olive Dining provides quality and tasty meals for over 150,000 students across 170 primary, secondary and SEN schools in London and the South East.
Catering News is sponsored by The Kitchen Porters Club
