NI Anti Poverty Network: Making feeding children a priority

This bill instructs the Department to ensure that families receive financial payments during holidays in lieu of the Free School Meals their children would be receiving if they were in school.

An NIAPN spokesperson said: “This policy should have never been scrapped in 2023, after being very successfully implemented in 2020.

“The holiday meal payments are an absolute lifeline for many parents who struggle to feed their children over school holidays. These payments come at a time when families struggle with compounded school holiday costs, such as childcare, summer schemes, all day heat over winter breaks, and increased electric bills,” they added.

“We know that many parents skip meals over holidays to ensure their children eat, others borrow money, avail of food banks and social supermarkets, and cut back on other household expenses. Furthermore, we know that there are children who simply do not have enough to eat. For these reasons, NIAPN welcomes the commitment of Stormont to prioritise feeding those 90,000 children in households with the least amount of income.

“With 19% of children in NI living in poverty, this legislation is a positive first step. But it is just that, a first step.

“We know that 40% of children living in poverty are not eligible for free school meals because the threshold is too low. On the eve of this bill passing its final hurdle, the Education Authority announced an increase of the price of school dinners. This is the second time they have increased since the beginning of last school year - going from £2.60 to £3.40 per primary school meal. At £17 a week per child, school dinners are now completely out of reach for many households.

“The Executive needs to make feeding children a priority. NIAPN has long advocated for the expansion of free, healthy school meals to all children. Every other jurisdiction on these islands has some form of universal provision - rolling out Universal Free School meals starting in nursery and increasing year group incrementally. This needs to be the vision for the Executive and a plan must be developed to roll this out,” said the spokesperson.

“There is overwhelming evidence that free, nutritious school meals is popular amongst students, parents, teachers and school communities. It combats the stigma that is associated with free school meals at the minute,” added the spokesperson.

“There are ample studies from many jurisdictions that a free school meal improves the physical and mental health of students; and longitudinal studies that point to the benefits to educational attainment.

“Last night in the Chamber member after member spoke about the need to prioritise children.

“Stormont must do better and use its collective energy and collective budget to prioritise tackling child poverty. There is no excuse.”