Hot School Meals: Everything you need to know

Who is eligible for free school meals?

On our platform we have seen an uptick in members of our community starting fundraisers to accommodate for times when children may be missing out on a meal.

We have compiled a round up of the support that’s available across Ireland.

Read on to find out about free school meals eligibility and what help is available to you.

Pre-school and early years

In Ireland, there is some financial support available for pre-school children but it doesn’t include free school meals.

As per the Irish Health Executive, The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme provides free care and education for pre-school children. It is available for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, 38 weeks of the year. Learning materials are included under the scheme, but you’ll have to pay for any meals.

Primary school

Children of primary school age are also eligible for support.

There are schemes available to families of primary school aged children, however there are certain criteria that must be met for these.

These schemes include:

-The Urban School Meals Scheme

-The School Meals Local Projects Scheme

According to the government, “Projects must be targeted at areas of disadvantage or at children with special needs. Priority for funding is currently given to schools which are part of the Department of Education’s initiative for disadvantaged schools, ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools’ (DEIS).

“However, there is no automatic entitlement to funding and all applications are considered in light of the available budget for the scheme.”

Plans are in place to roll out the Hot School Meals programme to every primary school in Ireland though.

The School Meals Programme has an annual Budget of over €94 million. It supports over 1,600 schools and organisations nationwide and benefits over 260,000 children.

Plans outline that there should be a universal school meals programme with one free hot meal for every child in Ireland. This should be implemented in a phased approach by 2030.

Post-primary

It is hoped the School Meals Local Projects Scheme will also be applied to secondary schools, so that all children of school age will get one free hot school meal. 

Ultimately, the plan is that about 950,000 pupils in almost 4,000 schools, across both primary and post-primary, will have a hot daily meal by 2030.

Can you claim free school meals over the school holidays?

In between term times, there are options for children and families to still get support with food shopping and meals.

The level of support you can access depends on your income and personal living circumstances.

The Free School Meals programme unfortunately does not extend to during the school holidays yet, as the priority has been to provide meals to all schools. 

The Department of Social Protection recommended that the School Meals programme should be extended beyond just school times to address what is known as ‘holiday hunger’.

It’s hoped this can be rolled out between 2023 and 2025, although no plans have been announced just yet.

Non governmental support for school meals

Away from government support, there’s also other means of getting financial assistance.

If other forms of funding are falling short, crowdfunding can provide an alternative way of raising much-needed funds.

 

Irish retailers tackling food insecurity

Supermarkets and other retailers commonly offer discounts and free food to children and families over the school holidays too.

Many supermarkets recognise the breaks from school can be a challenging time for families as they often need to spend more.

The best way to find the best deals is to take a look at providers online and see what the latest discounts are.

Aldi’s partnership with FoodCloud is an example of one supermarket going further to help.

The supermarket donates consumable surplus food from all stores to FoodCloud, who redistribute the food to charities and community organisations nationwide.