Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 May 2024
68. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the provisions she has put in place to reduce food waste in the context of the school hot meals initiative; if she engaged with specialists in the area of nutritional value ahead of rolling out the initiative; and her views on whether the initiative is targeted appropriately. [22002/24]
View answerThe objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Following the expansion of the programme in recent years, some 2,600 schools and organisations, covering 443,000 children are now eligible for funding.
As part of this significant expansion plan, all remaining primary schools were contacted last year and requested to submit an expression of interest form if their school is interested in commencing the provision of hot school meals. Expressions of interests were received from over 900 primary schools in respect of 150,000 children. Late last year, these schools were invited to participate in the Hot School Meals Programme from 8th April 2024. The remaining primary schools who have not yet joined the scheme have been contacted to express an interest to receive Hot School Meals from September 2024.
Under tender documentation as stipulated by the Schools Procurement’s Unit, the school meal supplier is responsible for operating policies which progressively addresses environmental considerations such as waste and packaging. The method and logistics of supplying the meals is decided by the school. In addition, under tender documentation as stipulated by the Schools Procurement’s Unit, the school is committed to the principles of environmental management in its activities and it encourages the implementation of sustainability principles in its procurement practices and that the supplier should make all reasonable efforts to minimise adverse environmental impact in the methods of services delivery and in materials used.
My Department provides funding directly to schools to enable them to source and provide meals that meet the Healthy Ireland Nutritional Standards for Hot School Meals which were developed by a working group led by the Health and Wellbeing Programme, in consultation with Safefood and the Healthy Eating and Active Living Programme in the Health Service Executive. Responsibility for sourcing the meals is a matter for the Board of Management of each school, but to secure funding they must first agree to apply the standards set out by signing a Service Level Agreement which clearly sets out the school’s responsibilities and obligations in terms of Nutritional Standard.
Funding is not provided to schools who do not commit to this undertaking and can be withdrawn if they do not adhere to the standards set out. My Department does monitor adherence to the standards including through site visits.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
