Frankfurt Caps School Lunch at 3 Euros a Day. Which Platform Bills You Still Depends on Your School
Frankfurt doesn't run one citywide platform the way MensaMax anchors school lunch across the Munich area, but it also doesn't leave the price itself to each school the way some cities do: the city sets a single family price ceiling and subsidizes the rest from its own budget. A warm lunch costs a family at most 3 euros a day per child at Frankfurt's public schools, with the city covering whatever the meal actually costs above that. Families holding a Frankfurt-Pass pay 1 euro instead, and children whose families receive the Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket (BuT) eat free. That subsidy doesn't remove the administrative layer underneath it, though: each school works with its own contracted caterer and its own digital ordering platform, so what a family actually has to set up still varies address by address. Leibnizschule and Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium both use OFW Catering, ordering and managing accounts through the PCA platform (registration at ofw.clients.pca.de, a 1-euro RFID chip deposit, cancellations due by 6pm the evening before), while Valentin-Senger-Schule contracts a different caterer, Firma GEG, with registration through the caterer's own site and a same-day cancellation cutoff of 8:30am. A family moving between two Frankfurt schools with different caterers is starting the registration process from zero each time, new account, new login, sometimes a new chip, even though the 3-euro ceiling and the Frankfurt-Pass and BuT reductions apply everywhere.
The Official Rule
Frankfurt鈥檚 own school administration sets a single, simple ceiling on what any family actually pays for a warm school lunch: at most 3 euros a day per child, with the city covering whatever the meal genuinely costs above that from its own budget. Two reductions sit underneath that ceiling. Families holding a Frankfurt-Pass, the city鈥檚 income-based discount card, pay just 1 euro a day. Children whose families receive the Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket (BuT), the federal education and participation benefit, eat free. Unlike Berlin, where free lunch through grade 6 is written directly into state school law, Frankfurt鈥檚 arrangement is a budgeted city subsidy that applies at every grade level rather than a legal entitlement tied to a specific age band.
That subsidy doesn鈥檛 remove the layer underneath it: which caterer and which digital platform a family actually has to register with still depends entirely on the specific school. Real examples from Frankfurt鈥檚 own schools show at least two different setups running side by side. Leibnizschule and Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium both work with OFW Catering, ordering and account management handled through the PCA (Professional Card Administration GmbH) platform at ofw.clients.pca.de; at Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium specifically, that setup launched in August 2025, runs on a prepaid account funded by bank transfer or SEPA direct debit, and requires a 1-euro refundable RFID chip used at the serving counter. Valentin-Senger-Schule instead contracts an entirely different caterer, Firma GEG, with registration handled directly on the caterer鈥檚 own site rather than through PCA.
| School | Caterer / platform | Cancellation cutoff |
|---|---|---|
| Leibnizschule | OFW Catering via PCA (ofw.clients.pca.de) | Managed through the PCA ordering portal |
| Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium | OFW Catering via PCA, school ID 659C02; 1 EUR RFID chip deposit | 6pm the evening before; 8am same-day for illness |
| Valentin-Senger-Schule | Firma GEG (bestellung-geggastro.de) | 8:30am same day |
What the Price Ceiling Actually Looks Like Per Family
| Household situation | Price per meal |
|---|---|
| Standard family rate | Up to 3 EUR/day, city subsidizes the rest |
| Frankfurt-Pass holder | 1 EUR/day |
| Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket (BuT) recipient | Free |
A family鈥檚 actual bill depends on which of these three tiers applies, but in every case the mechanism for getting there runs through the same school-specific caterer account as everyone else at that school, not a separate citywide subsidy portal.
Photo by Ella Olsson on Pexels
Real Life
The detail that seems to catch newcomer families off guard isn鈥檛 the price ceiling itself, most understand quickly that 3 euros is a capped, subsidized rate rather than the meal鈥檚 real cost. It鈥檚 discovering that a capped price still means an account to create, a caterer-specific login to remember, and, at a school like Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium, a small deposit for a physical chip, even at the lowest price tier under BuT. A family moving from a Leibnizschule sibling on the OFW/PCA system to a school using Firma GEG instead is effectively starting over: a different site, a different account, and a cancellation cutoff that can fall at a completely different hour of the day.
That variation echoes what SettledIn鈥檚 Berlin guide to this same topic describes, different districts there contract different caterers even though a single state law sets the underlying price floor. Frankfurt鈥檚 version runs the same way at the school level rather than the district level: the city sets the ceiling, but the school picks the caterer, and the caterer sets the platform, the deposit, and the exact cutoff time.
Step by Step
- Check which of the three price tiers applies to your household: the standard 3 EUR/day ceiling, 1 EUR/day with a Frankfurt-Pass, or free through the Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket (BuT).
- Ask your specific school which caterer and platform it actually uses; don鈥檛 assume it matches a sibling鈥檚 school or a previous school, even within Frankfurt.
- Register your child directly with that caterer, whether that鈥檚 OFW Catering via the PCA platform or Firma GEG鈥檚 own site, and budget for a small refundable chip deposit if your school uses one.
- Provide proof of your Frankfurt-Pass or BuT eligibility to your school or its caterer directly, since the reduced rate is applied through the same per-school account rather than a separate citywide process.
- Confirm your specific school鈥檚 cancellation cutoff; real examples range from 6pm the evening before to 8:30am the same day, and missing it typically means the meal gets billed regardless.
Compliance Note
This page explains the general framework behind Frankfurt鈥檚 school lunch subsidy and the per-school caterer systems currently documented at several real Frankfurt schools, current as of mid-2026. It is not official guidance from any specific school, district, or caterer. Because Frankfurt leaves the caterer and platform choice to each school, the exact provider, deposit, and cancellation cutoff your child鈥檚 school actually uses can differ from every example given here; confirm the specific details directly with your own school鈥檚 office.
FAQ & Common Pitfalls
Is school lunch actually free in Frankfurt, the way it is in Berlin through grade 6?
No, and this is a real structural difference between the two cities. Berlin writes free lunch through grade 6 directly into its own school law. Frankfurt instead caps what a family pays at 3 euros a day per child at every grade, with the city covering the rest as a budgeted subsidy rather than a legal entitlement tied to a specific grade band. Families holding a Frankfurt-Pass pay just 1 euro, and children whose families receive the Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket (BuT) eat free, but the baseline for a family without either of those isn't zero, it's a capped 3 euros.
If the city subsidizes the meal, do I still need to register my child and pay anything?
Yes, and this is the detail that catches families off guard regardless of which subsidy tier applies to them. The 3-euro ceiling, the 1-euro Frankfurt-Pass rate, and the free BuT rate all still run through whichever caterer your specific school has contracted. Leibnizschule and Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium both use OFW Catering, registered through the PCA platform at ofw.clients.pca.de, with a 1-euro refundable chip deposit at Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium specifically. Valentin-Senger-Schule instead contracts Firma GEG, registered directly at the caterer's own site. Either way, you're creating an account and, in some cases, paying a small deposit, even at the lowest price tier.
Why doesn't Frankfurt just use one system for every school, the way Munich mostly relies on MensaMax?
Because, as in Berlin, school catering in Frankfurt isn't procured through one single citywide contract. Individual schools work with the caterer available to them, which is why Leibnizschule and Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium both ended up on the same OFW Catering and PCA platform setup while Valentin-Senger-Schule uses an entirely different caterer, Firma GEG, with its own separate registration site. A family can't assume their new school uses the same platform as a previous one, even within Frankfurt itself, and should ask the school office directly which caterer and platform actually apply.
What actually happens if I forget to cancel a meal my child won't eat?
The cutoff depends on which caterer your specific school uses, and it isn't the same everywhere. Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium's OFW/PCA system allows changes or cancellations up until 6pm the evening before, with a same-day 8am cutoff specifically for illness. Valentin-Senger-Schule's GEG-run system instead sets an 8:30am same-day cutoff for registrations and cancellations. Missing your specific school's cutoff typically means the meal gets billed regardless of whether it's eaten, so it's worth confirming the exact cutoff time with your own school rather than assuming either pattern applies.
How do we actually get the Frankfurt-Pass or BuT reduction applied?
You still register with your school's own caterer first, the same way any family does, and then provide proof of your Frankfurt-Pass or your household's Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket eligibility so the reduced or free rate gets applied to your account rather than the standard 3-euro price. Because the reduction is administered through the same per-school platform as regular billing, not through a separate citywide portal, it's worth asking your specific school's office or caterer directly what documentation they need and how the reduced rate gets set up on your account.