CARTHAGEKITCHEN

By event

School Lunch catering in Los Angeles.

School catering and school lunch programs in Los Angeles — halal, USDA-aware menus kids actually eat, with nut-free lines and labeled boxed service.

$17
Per guest, from
1–2 weeks typical
Typical lead time
On request
Custom spreads
School Lunch Catering
SCHOOLS
50+Events catered
20+Years in hospitality
40Catering services & programs
22Menus, one kitchen

The occasion

Schools catering in Los Angeles & Orange County

What it takes to cater schools well — the logistics, the timing, and how we make it work.

School lunch catering is judged by one brutally simple test the rest of catering never faces: how much of it ends up in the trash. Food that is nutritious, compliant and ignored has failed, so we build menus children will actually finish.

Underneath the palate is the part that can never slip: safety and counts. School service runs from a nut-free line by default, every box is labeled with its contents and allergen marks for the student group it belongs to, and menus are built to the USDA portion and component guidance schools are accountable for, with documentation to match each cycle. Boxes arrive sorted by classroom or grade and reconciled against your roster the day before, so a teacher hands out lunch rather than sorting a pile, and nobody is left short or guessing whether the box in their hand is safe for the kid in front of them.

Delivery is timed to the bell, not to our convenience, because a lunch that lands ten minutes into the period is a lunch that ruins the period. Windows are planned around your schedule and held, and a recurring program gets a rotating menu so the week doesn't blur into the same tray, plus program pricing that respects a school budget. Every menu carries the same dietary tracks as the rest of our catering — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and halal · zabiha-sourced — labeled per box, so the one student with a restriction is fed the same lunch as everyone else, not handed an apology.

Why Carthage

Why Carthage for schools

What you get with us for schools specifically — not a generic catering pitch.

  • Food kids actually finish

    Menus are built for the palate first — flavors kids recognize and reach for, in formats that travel and hold — because a compliant lunch that ends up in the trash has failed the only audience that counts.

  • Nut-free by default, labeled per group

    School service runs from a nut-free line, with every box marked with its contents and allergens for the student group it belongs to — safety is the baseline, not an add-on.

  • Sorted, counted, reconciled

    Boxes arrive sorted by classroom or grade and checked against your roster the day before, so a teacher hands out lunch instead of sorting a pile and nobody is left short.

  • Delivered to the bell, on a rotation

    Windows are planned around your schedule and held, and standing programs get a rotating menu and budget-respecting program pricing so the week never blurs into the same tray.

Credentials

Built for institutional buying

The same standards behind our LA County contract — an awarded, SAM-registered, insured vendor set up for procurement. Not a claim; a record you can verify.

  • Awarded government vendor

    LA County Dept. of Mental Health

    Boxed-meal term contract MA-IS-2640355-1

    Term 2026–2029

  • Registered & verified

    SAM.gov · UEI JKSRSFUCUL54 · CAGE 17AN4

    LA County vendor #228518

    LAUSD vendor #1000032065

  • Insured & experienced

    $2M liability insurance

    Founder · 20+ years in hospitality

    COIs on file · allergen sheets · net-30

  • Built for procurement

    NAICS 722320 · 722310 · 722330 · 311991

    Per-head invoicing · bulk & boxed at scale

    Halal · zabiha-sourced · dietary tracks

Schools catering runs about $17$58 per guest for food. Multiplied out, that is what a spread costs at the counts people usually ask about.

Estimated schools catering cost by guest count — food only
GuestsEstimated food costPer guest
25$425 – $1,450$17 – $58
50$850 – $2,900$17 – $58
100$1,700 – $5,800$17 – $58
150$2,550 – $8,700$17 – $58

Food only. Staffing, rentals, delivery, setup and breakdown are separate lines, and a mandatory service charge and California sales tax apply on top — so the invoice for a staffed event runs meaningfully above the food figure. Smaller counts sit at the top of the band: setup and delivery cost the same at 25 guests as at 100. Every menu halal · zabiha-sourced.

Questions

Before you ask

Are your menus USDA-compliant?
Our school menus are built to USDA portion and component guidance, with documentation per menu cycle for your records.
How do you handle nut allergies?
School service runs from our nut-free line, and every box is labeled per student group with full allergen marks.
Can you deliver sorted by classroom?
Yes — boxes arrive sorted and labeled by classroom or grade, with counts confirmed against your roster the day before.
Can you invoice a district or work from a purchase order?
Yes — a PO or an email is enough to start, with no account signup required. You get a per-head itemized quote to attach to a requisition, COIs on file up front, allergen sheets per dish, and invoicing structured per site and per delivery day so it reconciles against a PO line. Net-30 for established accounts.
Can this run daily or weekly through a term?
Yes, as one standing arrangement rather than a series of orders: a published menu calendar, per-site delivery, counts that flex with attendance, and one consolidated invoice per period. Term breaks and closures pause without penalty.
How do you keep students actually eating it?
By rotating widely and paying attention to what comes back. The rotation moves across cuisines rather than repeating a compliant-but-dull cycle, and we reweight toward what is actually finished — which in practice means more of the handheld and grain-based dishes than anyone predicts at the start. Everything is halal · zabiha-sourced, so one menu serves the whole cohort.
Do you work as caterers for schools and districts?
Yes. We work as caterers for schools across Los Angeles — public and charter districts, private and independent schools, preschools and after-school programs. Catering for students is its own discipline: portions are sized by age band rather than by appetite, nut-free lines are kept physically separate rather than merely labelled, and every meal is labelled per dish so staff can answer a parent without calling us. We can run a single event, a weekly rotation, or a full term, and invoice a district or work from a purchase order.

Dietary

Dietary needs?

Every schools menu is labeled per dish and built around the guest list — here's how we handle the requests we hear most.

Working out a budget first? See what catering costs in Los Angeles across every service style.

A candlelit table raised in a toast

Begin the commission

Set the date. We open the doors.

Weddings, premieres, Tuesday lunches — every commission starts with two fields and ends with a menu sketch in your inbox within one business day. No spam, no upsell call.

$2M · liability insured1 · business-day reply50+ · events
Request a Proposal