Hot meals for 100 additional Cork schools

PUPILS in 100 additional primary schools around Cork are to get hot meals during the school day next year, it has been confirmed.

The good news for the Cork schools came in an announcement from Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys on the extension of the Hot School Meals programme to 900 additional schools across the country.

This was welcomed by north Cork Fine Gael councillor John Paul O’Shea who described the announcement as a “significant development”.

He said the move would benefit 150,000 additional children around the country, allowing them to receive a nourishing, hot meal each school day when the scheme takes effect in April of 2024.

“The Hot School Meals Programme is a major initiative to encourage school attendance and will continue to help tackle the issue of education disadvantage,” said Mr O’Shea.

“From April next year, there will be over 1,400 primary schools benefitting from hot school meals, many of these from Cork,” he said.

“This is a major step in guaranteeing that all children have the very best start in life, and I look forward to seeing further expansion of this scheme in the future.

“The main objective of the Hot School Meals Programme is to ensure that all children — regardless of their background — can access regular, nutritious food so that they can take full advantage of the education provided to them.”

Mr O’Shea said his party was committed to providing the best start for every child and the provision of a hot meal to school-going children every day would provide further support for families across the country.

“The expansion of the scheme ensures that even more children across Cork will benefit, ” he added.

As part of this significant expansion plan, primary schools were contacted and requested to submit an expression of interest form if their school was interested in being included in the scheme.

This has resulted in 900 additional schools taking part.

Ms Humphreys said it was her ambition to make access to the hot school meals universal across the country.

“As minister, I am absolutely determined to continue to expand the Hot School Meals Programme to every primary school in Ireland,” she said.

“My ambition is that a child born in Ireland today will be access to a hot meal by the time they start school.

“We are now well on course to achieve that objective.”