Catering profitability calculator for a kindergarten, nursery or school
Before you bid, check whether the contract holds. Enter attendance, set price and costs — you will see margin, break-even and what happens if food prices rise by 10%.
Net amounts, one contract (one facility). Kitchen, admin and transport are costs allocated to this agreement — not the whole company.
How this calculator works
This is not a simple “revenue minus cost”. The calculator splits variable costs (they rise with every portion) from fixed costs allocated to the contract. That is how you see at how many children the agreement turns into a loss — and what lunch price is the absolute floor.
Revenue = average daily attendance × feeding days × set price (or the sum of meals). Variable cost per portion is food with overproduction, the special-diet surcharge and packaging. The rest — kitchen, admin, transport, other — stays put whether 71 or 85 children eat that day, unless you change the roster.
How to price catering for a kindergarten
Do not price from the enrolment list
Preschool catering profitability sits on children who eat. A list of 100 enrolled at 82% attendance is 82 portions, not 100. If the bid assumes a full list and the kitchen deducts absences, the margin is gone in month one.
Portion cost in catering is more than ingredients
Ingredients are the largest line, not the only one. Portion cost also includes packaging, waste and overproduction, and the diet surcharge. Labour and delivery are spread over portions actually sold — the lower the attendance, the more expensive each portion.
Catering margin has to survive a food-price rise
A facility contract lasts months or years, and the price is often frozen. If a 10% food-price rise leaves you near zero, you have no buffer — you have a problem at the first annex the kindergarten will not sign on the spot.
Break-even matters more than an “average month”
An average of 85 children is calming. A threshold of 71 children tells you what November with flu looks like. An owner who knows that threshold knows when to refuse an annex and when to raise the price — before month-end Excel shows a loss.
Pricing catering: common questions
Add the variable cost per portion (food with overproduction, diets, packaging) and spread the contract’s fixed costs over the planned portions. The minimum viable price is full cost divided by portions. Then add a margin that survives both lower attendance and a food-price rise.
There is no single industry figure. What matters is whether you stay above zero after a 10% food-price rise and below-average attendance. If break-even sits close to your typical attendance, the lunch price is too low — even if an “average month” looks fine.
Always attendance. Enrolled children do not eat. The kitchen, packaging and delivery work on portions that left the building. The enrolment list is only an upper bound and a sense of how much you can still “fill” the contract.
Take the share of diet portions and their ingredient surcharge. Even 10–15% of diets with a few zloty extra can eat a margin you will not see in the average set price. If the facility does not pay extra for diets, that cost has to sit in the standard rate.
Kilometres × runs × days × rate per kilometre, plus driver time. Maximum delivery cost in the result is what you can spend on transport and still not subsidise the contract. If real delivery is higher — raise the price, or the facility should not be on that route.
You know the threshold. Dietido watches the daily count.
The calculator shows at how many children the contract stops paying. The software collects actual kindergarten orders — not a month-end spreadsheet average.
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