In countries like Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and India, school children in compulsory education are provided with a universal school meal every day – usually a hot meal – regardless of what school they go to and regardless of their family’s ability to pay. In Sweden, for instance, students aged seven to 16, and also most of those aged 16 – 19 years old, and in secondary school, are given a free hot meal in school every day as part of their school day. In other countries, children are given free school milk or fruit every day as part of their education, and some countries provide a free daily school meal to those most at risk, especially students from low-income families.
This matters when across the EU, it is estimated that a quarter of ALL children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and many families have difficulties feeding their kids. Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! In Ireland, as per today, 345,000 primary school children are now eligible to receive a hot meal in school every day, a massive jump from when the pilot project was started a few years back and only included six sample schools. And as the government admit they would like to see the hot meal scheme rolled out to include every primary school in the state, a new poll shows that as many as two-thirds of people strongly agree that all primary school children should have access to a universal free hot meal every day.
The poll conducted by the Children’.