A Shannon primary school principal claims the Department of Social Protection’s Hot School Meals Programme is being ‘ubiquitously welcomed’ by everyone.
The Social Protection Minister Heather Humphries has announced one one of her main aims of Budget 2025 is to continue the rollout of the programme to every primary school in the country.
The Hot School Meals Programme was first introduced in 2019, when 36 primary schools were selected for a pilot project.
Since then, over 2,000 schools are now eligible for the programme which enables over 316,000 children to receive a hot dinner at school.
The original target of programme was to have every child in the country availing of a school dinner by 2030 but Social Protection Minister Heather Humphries says completing this by 2025 is one of her main aims in the upcoming budget.
Principal of St Conaires Primary School in Shannon, Peter Walsh, believes the programme has been a complete success.
Each primary school availing of the project is expected to provide a menu choice of at least two different meals per day plus a vegetarian or vegan choice, along with an option that caters for students’ religious and cultural dietary requirements.
The scheme operates through the use of an app, where parents can select their childs preferred meal as well as identify any allergies their child may have.
Assistant Principal of CBS Primary School in Ennis, Colm Davoren, says no matter the circumstance all students are catered for every day.
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