School meals are funded by my Department using two different avenues at present. One is the school meals scheme, which has been operated in conjunction with certain local authorities for over 80 years. The other is the school meals community programme which I introduced last year. The school meals scheme provides financial assistance to local authorities, except county councils, for the provision of school meals for national school children who are "unable by reason of lack of food to take full advantage of the education provided for them". In most cases, the local authorities provide participating schools with a sandwich or a bun and milk for each eligible child. My Department meets half of the food costs.