Inside the takeaway business run from a secondary school’s kitchen

Nicholson said he wanted to “serve good food” while helping schools financially by renting their kitchens.

Staff are paid a living wage, with no one on zero-hours contracts and all deliveries are self-made, Nicholson said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said School Kitchen also had an educational arm that teaches children more about cooking and food. Any profit goes to finance breakfast clubs.

“We’ve done cooking demonstrations for the kids and provided food for free breakfasts,” he said.

Nicholson got the idea before the pandemic because he had noticed more and more “ghost” or “dark kitchens”.

“There was a growing number of these kitchens where food is prepared out of places like shipping containers and then delivered to customers,” he said.

“I wanted to do something like that, but in a way that would have a positive impact on the community, so I came up with the idea of ​​School Kitchen.”

Customers can order Spanish, Italian, Sri Lankan, Thai and Mexican dishes, and Mr. Nicholson said the menus had been designed with the help of celebrity chefs Matt Tebbutt and Nadia Hussain.

Orders come in via Skolekøkkenet or Deliveroo’s websites.

“It took a long time to find (a school) willing to be the first,” he said.

“There were concerns about safety and cross-contamination of food for people with allergies, and we also needed planning permission.”

Now the company is looking to set up cooking programs and an apprenticeship scheme, he added.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Soundscatch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should cover here, outer.