Minister Humphreys visits Monaghan school to acknowledge rollout of Hot School Meals

• 27 additional schools in Monaghan benefitting from the expansion of Hot School Meals
• Over 5,000 children in Monaghan getting Hot School Meals, across 36 schools
• Hot School Meals programme has grown from 30 schools to over 2,000 schools nationwide
• "I want to see every Primary School child in the Country receiving a Hot Meal in 2025" - Minister Humphreys

Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD, today visited St Comgall's school in Monaghan. The school has recently been approved for Hot School Meals as part of the recent expansion of the programme.

Since 8th April an additional 150,000 children are benefitting from nutritious Hot Meals throughout Ireland. This includes over 5,000 pupils in 36 schools in County Monaghan.

In addition, Minister Humphreys announced that any remaining Primary Schools, who have not yet joined the scheme, can now express an interest to receive Hot School Meals. All remaining schools will shortly receive an 'Expression of Interest' form. This should be returned to [email protected]

Speaking today during a visit to St. Comgall's school in Clones, Co Monaghan, Minister Humphreys said:

"I am delighted that an additional 27 Primary Schools in Monaghan have been approved for the Hot School Meals Programme. Like St. Comgall's many of these schools are already offering hot meals to their students. This brings to 36 the total number of schools in the county participating in this programme.

"When I was appointed Minister for Social Protection in June 2020, there were 30 schools nationwide receiving Hot Meals. The recent announcement means that there are now over 2,000 Primary Schools able to benefit from Hot School Meals. This is well ahead of our original target to make Hot School Meals universal in Primary Schools by 2030.

"My ambition is that every primary school child in the country will be receiving a hot meal in 2025 ensuring that the children have access to regular, nutritious food to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them."

The Hot School Meals Programme was introduced in 2019 as a small pilot of 30 schools and has grown significantly in recent years with over 2,000 primary schools now eligible to participate in the programme.

Last year, Minister Humphreys signalled her intention to roll out the Hot School Meals Programme to all Primary Schools. As part of this significant expansion plan, all remaining Primary Schools were contacted and requested to submit an expression of interest form if their school is interested in commencing the provision of Hot Meals.

Applications for the Hot School Meals Programme were received from some 900 Primary Schools in respect of 150,000 children and these schools have been approved to participate in the Hot School Meals Programme.

The Department of Social Protection provides the funding to schools for the School Meals Programme, and it is the responsibility of each school to choose their supplier in an open, fair and transparent manner in accordance with national legislation and EU directives on procurement.

Notes:

The 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.

The Hot School Meals element was introduced in 2019 and has grown significantly from a small pilot of 30 schools. The recent announcement brings the total number of schools able to benefit from Hot Meals to 2,000 since 08 April 2024.

All remaining Primary Schools will now have an opportunity to submit an Expression of Interest to start receiving Hot School Meals.