At The Easy Lunch Company, we put plenty of thought into the ingredients that go into your child’s lunch. We design our meals to be fresh, nutritious and full of flavour, while also being the kind of food children look forward to eating.
From September 2026, we’re excited to have introduced locally sourced venison from the Knepp Estate in West Sussex to one of our recipes.
Our pasta bolognese bake with a cheese topping now uses venison mince from Knepp, bringing a high-quality local ingredient to a familiar, child-friendly meal.
Want to find out more about the lunches we prepare? Take a look at our food and discover more about our menus, ingredients and approach to school meals.
Our new pasta bolognese bake recipe
Introducing a new ingredient to a school lunch is always something we think carefully about. It needs to offer good nutrition and quality, but just as importantly, it needs to work in a meal that children will enjoy.
Our bolognese pasta bake uses minced venison from the Knepp Estate, combined with plenty of vegetables including onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms and tomatoes. We cook the bolognese long and slow on the morning it’s served, allowing the flavours of the venison and vegetables to come together.
Venison has a distinctive flavour, but using it in a rich bolognese sauce alongside plenty of vegetables helps create a familiar taste without making the venison too strong for children.
Why have we chosen venison from Knepp Estate?
Knepp Castle Estate is particularly special to us because it is right where we started. Back in 2008, our very first kitchen was on the Knepp Estate, just 3 miles from our current kitchen in Coolham. Today, this gives us the opportunity to use a high-quality local ingredient with a strong connection to the surrounding landscape.
Its wild venison comes from free-roaming herds of red and fallow deer, which play an important role in the estate’s rewilding project. The venison is lean, richly flavoured and high in omega-3s, making it a nutritious addition to our menu.
Here’s some more information about the venison and the wider Knepp Estate:
Knepp venison: wild, sustainable and good for us
Knepp venison comes from free-roaming deer that live within the Knepp Estate rewilding project in West Sussex. Unlike intensively farmed livestock, the deer graze naturally on a diverse range of wild plants, shrubs and grasses, producing lean, nutrient-rich meat with a distinctive flavour. Venison is naturally high in protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins, while being lower in saturated fat than many other meats, making it a healthy choice for a balanced diet.
What makes Knepp venison particularly special is the way it is linked to the estate’s pioneering approach to land management. Since 2000, Knepp has transformed 3,500 acres of former farmland into one of Britain’s most successful rewilding projects. Rather than managing the landscape intensively, Knepp allows natural processes to shape the land.
Free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer create a rich mosaic of habitats including grassland, scrub, woodland and wetland. This approach has led to remarkable increases in wildlife, with species such as nightingales, turtle doves and purple emperor butterflies returning in significant numbers.
The deer play an important role in this ecosystem, helping to maintain habitat diversity through their grazing and browsing. By harvesting a sustainable number of animals each year, Knepp produces high-quality venison while supporting the health and balance of the wider landscape. The result is food that is not only good for us, but also contributes to the restoration of nature and biodiversity.
Meat with a local connection
We use British meat across our school lunch menus, and now we’re delighted to have a meat option that comes from even closer to home.
With the estate just a few miles from our kitchen in Coolham, it allows us to serve children a quality meat produced right here in West Sussex.
It also introduces children to something they may not often eat at home. By using the venison in a familiar dish, we can offer something a little different while still keeping the meal approachable and enjoyable.
This reflects how we plan our menus: with children in mind, balancing nutrition with meals that are comforting, familiar and well suited to a busy school day.
Summary: bringing Knepp venison onto our school menu
Our pasta bolognese bake now includes venison mince sourced from the Knepp Estate here in West Sussex.
It gives us the chance to use a high-quality local ingredient that is nutritious, full of flavour and well suited to one of the familiar dishes on our menu.
By combining the venison with plenty of vegetables and cooking the bolognese slowly, we can create a balanced school lunch that introduces something a little different in a way children can enjoy.
For us, it’s another way to bring quality local ingredients into the fresh, nourishing meals we prepare for children each week.
* All Knepp Estate imagery courtesy of © Charlie Burrell / Knepp
Choose your child’s school lunch
Our menus are planned with quality, nutrition and variety in mind, with fresh dishes prepared for children throughout the school week.
When our pasta bolognese bake with Knepp venison is on the menu, you can select it for your child through SchoolGrid.
If you have a question about any of our ingredients or your child’s meals, please get in touch with our team. We’re always happy to help.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Venison is naturally high in protein and provides important nutrients including iron, zinc and B vitamins. Venison is also lean, making it a nutritious choice as part of a balanced diet.
Venison has its own distinctive, rich flavour. In our pasta bake, however, it is combined with vegetables and tomatoes, creating a familiar pasta dish flavour that children can enjoy.
We offer a choice of meals across our school lunch menus, including standard, vegetarian and jacket potato options. Menus vary throughout the year, giving children a range of familiar dishes and different flavours to try.
