Sourcing the Best Supply
Our Irish suppliers sit at the heart of our meals. Alongside them, we work with trusted international suppliers who help us deliver the quality, consistency, and variety our meals are known for. We let them do what they do best, so we can do what we do best!
Choosing our Suppliers
A huge factor when sourcing ingredients and planning menus is Ireland’s climate, growing seasons and the timing of the school year.
Much of Ireland’s fresh produce is at it’s peak during the summer months, while demand for school meals is greatest during the school term. We work closely with local suppliers to help plan production, staffing and seasonality so they can meet the demands of school meals.
Where demand can’t be met by Irish produce, or where particular ingredients aren’t grown here, we look further afield to trusted international suppliers who meet the same high standards.
By bringing together the best producers, partners and expertise, we then create the cream of the crop – ensuring every ingredient meets the same trusted standard before it reaches your child’s desk.
Partnership Impact
Our partnerships create jobs, support local producers and strengthen communities, all while helping us put better food on children’s tables every day.
Local action. Wider impact.
Because we feed so many kids each day, Ballymaloe
have a whole extra line of employment to make sauce for us.
Glenhaven have a dedicated 17-hour shift every
fortnight to support the production of our products.
Learn more
Loughnane's
With over four generations of expertise, Loughnane’s of Galway have created a sausage exclusively for The Lunch Bag. Made with 100% Bord Bia Quality Assured Irish pork, it’s steam cooked, free from MSG, phosphates and preservatives, and produced in a fully sustainable seaweed casing – all while maintaining the quality Loughnane’s are known for.
Loughnane’s are based in the west of Ireland and have been making the finest quality sausages for over four generations.
Bandon Vale
Quality cheese from the heart of the rich dairy producing region of West Cork.
Founded in 1994 by Andy and Margaret Mahon, Bandon Vale is distinguished by its responsiveness to customer needs, product performance, functionality, and the highest standards of quality and food safety. Over the years, Bandon Vale has won many prestigious awards, highlighting the quality of the products they produce and their dedication to customer service.
They are committed to continuous improvement in both service and quality, continually investing in their production facilities and their people to ensure customer requirements and expectations are exceeded. Their dedication to quality, service, innovation and sustainability is reflected throughout their business. They take care to consider their environmental impact and continually work to reduce it. By listening to their customers and collaborating with their suppliers, they continue to develop more sustainable packaging solutions.
Keogh's
We worked with Keogh’s to develop a special range of popcorn, perfectly sized for Lunch Bag kids.
Together, we’ve created a portion-controlled snack made with the same commitment to quality, Irish farming and great taste that has made Keogh’s one of Ireland’s best-loved food brands.
Ballymaloe
Ballymaloe provide us with delicious sauce for many of our dishes, feeding over 600,000 kids in one month!
Because we feed so many kids each day, they have a whole extra line of employment who make sauce just for us.
Ballymaloe Foods is all about family, food and a passion for bringing the best ingredients and taste to their customers, in the most sustainable way. They’re committed to very high standards in food production and integrity in business. They’re proud to be a trusted brand and strive every day to bring their ethos of hard work, dedication and Ballymaloe warmth to everything they do.
Why we Work Together
Ballymaloe Foods and The Lunch Bag share a common goal: making good food easily accessible. Both place importance on high-quality, natural ingredients and believe that the food children eat every day should be nutritious, tasty and something they genuinely enjoy. For Ballymaloe, being part of school meals across Ireland means sharing their approach to good food with a new generation of children.
Impact
600,000+ children every month
Over 600,000 children every month are eating school meals made using Ballymaloe bolognese sauce through The Lunch Bag.
78 Employees
78 employees are part of the Ballymaloe Foods team. Production numbers often fluctuating depending on seasonal requirements.
1 Dedicated production line
Because we feed so many kids each day, Ballymaloe have a whole extra line of employment to specially make our sauce.
Supporting Irish Employment
As the Hot School Meals Programme continues to grow, the partnership helps sustain existing roles while creating opportunities for additional employment across production and supply chain.
More than Just Supply
Working with The Lunch Bag and supporting hot school meals has created an impact within Ballymaloe Foods that goes beyond simply supplying sauce. The partnership has supported the growth of Ballymaloe’s foodservice channel and created opportunities to develop new, healthier products specifically tailored to children. Meeting demand at this scale has also encouraged closer collaboration across Ballymaloe’s operations, new product development and supply chain teams. As the programme continues to grow, it helps sustain existing roles while creating opportunities for additional employment too. For the Ballymaloe team, there is also a greater sense of purpose in knowing that products made by their team in Cork are being enjoyed by children in schools across Ireland every day.
Building Healthy Relationships with Food
As parents of young families themselves, Maxine, Rose and the wider Ballymaloe Foods team understand how important nutritious, high-quality and tasty school meals are for growing bodies and minds. A good lunch gives children the opportunity to enjoy their food, look forward to lunchtime and return to the classroom energised for the rest of their school day. School meals also give children an opportunity to experience different flavours, textures, fruits and vegetables. That exposure can help build a positive relationship with food from an early age, one that can stay with them throughout adulthood. For Ballymaloe, making nutritious food taste good is an important part of that experience.
Glenhaven
Together, we developed a healthier chicken goujon exclusively for The Lunch Bag after finding no product in Ireland or Europe, that met our nutritional standards. From a local poultry producer to one of Ireland’s leading food manufacturers, Glenhaven Foods brings over 40 years of expertise to our partnership.
About Glenhaven
Glenhaven Foods is a family-owned Irish food manufacturer based in County Wicklow. Established over 40 years ago, the business has grown from a local poultry producer into one of Ireland’s leading manufacturers of frozen coated poultry and cheese products, supplying customers across Ireland, the UK and international markets.
Today, Glenhaven employs approximately 170 people and continues to invest in Irish manufacturing and product innovation, while staying true to the values it was founded on – quality, trust and family.
Why we Work Well Together
Our partnership began with a shared commitment to providing high-quality, nutritious food for school children across Ireland.
From the outset, our teams have worked closely together to ensure products meet the required specifications, maintain consistent quality and can be reliably supplied at the scale needed for our growing school meals programme.
As the partnership has grown, Glenhaven has become a trusted manufacturing partner, helping us deliver food that children enjoy, and food that schools and parents can rely on every day.
Innovation and Collaboration
Working closely with Glenhaven, we reformulated and developed a breaded, baked chicken goujon specifically for The Lunch Bag. One that meets EFSA guidelines while keeping the familiar taste, texture and comfort children rely on.
There was no product in Ireland, or even Europe, that gave us what we needed: the familiar food children love, with the nutrition they deserve. Through our Reformulation Project, we listened to families, professionals and most importantly, children. For many children with autism or sensory needs, familiar foods like goujons aren’t simply a preference. Removing them can mean removing access to a meal entirely.
Together, we created a goujon made with whole chicken fillets, baked and never fried, low in fat and saturated fat (reduced by 79%). It’s low in sugar (reduced by 40%) and has reduced salt by 14%. It has fewer calories too! (from 253 kcal per 100g to 161kcal)
Our Impact
What started as a shared commitment to better school food has grown into a partnership delivering at significant scale.
500+ Tonnes
500+ tonnes of high-quality products supplied since the partnership began.
17-Hour Dedicated Shift
Glenhaven have a dedicated 17-hour shift every fortnight to support The Lunch Bag programme.
170 Employees
170 employees are part of the team at Glenhaven’s County Wicklow facility. The scale and consistency of school meals has helped Glenhaven strengthen production planning, maximise manufacturing efficiencies and support continued investment across the business.
Local Impact
Glenhaven employs approximately 170 people in County Wicklow, across production, engineering, quality assurance, technical, logistics, new product development and commercial roles, with many employees living in the surrounding communities.
That impact extends beyond Glenhaven’s own workforce. The business works with a broad network of Irish suppliers, transport providers, packaging manufacturers, ingredient partners, equipment engineers, refrigeration specialists, maintenance contractors and local trades.
By manufacturing in Wicklow and sourcing services across Ireland wherever possible, the partnership helps support local employment, Irish businesses and the wider economy.
Quality you Can Trust
Supplying food for children carries a particular responsibility. Quality, safety and consistency can never be compromised. Every batch must deliver the same taste, texture, appearance and cooking performance while meeting rigorous food safety and quality specifications. Glenhaven’s technical, quality and production teams work together every day to maintain those standards, giving The Lunch Bag, schools and parents confidence in the food being served to children.
From Source to School
Every Glenhaven product starts with carefully selected ingredients sourced through trusted supplier partnerships that share a commitment to quality, food safety and responsible sourcing. Every supplier undergoes rigorous approval and auditing processes, providing full traceability throughout the supply chain. From there, products are manufactured in County Wicklow by Glenhaven’s skilled team, with experience and attention to detail at every stage helping ensure each batch delivers the consistency required for our schools.
Growing Together
As The Lunch Bag has grown, Glenhaven has continued investing in its manufacturing capability, production planning and quality systems to reliably support the demands of a large-scale school meals programme. The partnership supports Irish manufacturing and local employment while allowing both teams to contribute to something with a wider impact, helping provide high-quality meals to children across Ireland every school day.