The Hot School Meals Programme will be extended to an additional 6 primary schools across Waterford, according to Fine Gael Senator and General Candidate John Cummins. This is part of the rollout of an additional 168 primary schools nationally and will bring the national programme to 2,200 primary schools from September 2024.
Senator Cummins, a former teacher, has spoken about the benefits of the hot school programme in Seanad Eireann on several occasions, most recently when addressing Minister Paschal Donohoe following Budget 2024 which expanded the programme to a further 900 schools. He said “ensuring children have nutritious meals in school has many positive benefits, not only in ensuring children are adequately fedwhich is vitally important but it also helps them concentrate on their education. There are a lot of research papers that support this view and I have seen first-hand the impact of healthy eating in the school environment”.
Minister Humphreys said “Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have grown the Hot School Meals Programme from a small pilot of just 30 schools to a nationwide programme which now provides nutritious hot meals in 2,200 primary schools across the country”.
“My ambition now is to finish the job as part of this years Budget and ensure that every primary school in Ireland is providing hot school meals in 2025. I firmly believe the roll-out of hot school meals to every primary school in the country will be one of the lasting legacies of this government”.
The Department of Social Protection provides the funding to schools for the school meals programme, and it is the responsibility of schools to choose their supplier in an open, fair and transparent manner in accordance with national legislation and EU directives on procurement.
List of additional Waterford schools
Senator Cummins concluded by saying “I’m delighted that Minister Humphreys is implementing this expansion of the hot school meals programme and I fully support her ambition that the funding for the final expansion of the hot school meals programme to all remaining primary schools is a priority for her in Budget 2025.”
“It is a topic we are both passionate about and we’ve have had many discussions about. The Minister fully recognises that the full rollout will facilitate better educational outcomes, improved wellbeing amongst pupils and help tackle the issue of education disadvantage. It will also remove a key cost associated with attending school”.