Re: It never usually goes to the SMEs...
...but at least it will be a value-for-money press release by historical standards.
Quite. I did a photo call a few years ago where some local funding body was bunging £5000 at a tech skills training centre for school leavers. Normally this would have entailed a modest quantity of samosas or sandwiches "to encourage attendance" from a local cafe, paid for, naturally from the aforementioned grant. But in this case a junior minister (William Hague if I recall) was gracing the occasion, so they threw the kitchen sink at it and got the catering from a flash new local deli, who turned up with a vanload of fine food, including a couple of sides exotic looking salmon. All to feed 100 attendees max, mostly public sector employees, local politicians and a few press which included me. I was told later the bill was £2000, and those clearing up carted home enough for a few rather plump meals each. Irony was, the trainees funding ended up 60 percent of the original grant, but only two carefully selected examples were invited to mix with the 'dignitaries' and get a crack at the food.
I used to do a few of those a week, most paid from the public purse, but this was the only one I found out the costs, although a fair few were equally extravagant. Draw your own conclusions about value for money.