'Total overhaul' of school meals programme needed, campaign group says

There has been a call for total transparency regarding “what’s actually being eaten by children” as Cabinet is to discuss proposals to overhaul the free hot school meals programme after reviews revealed shortcomings in the service. File photo. 

There has been a call for total transparency regarding “what’s actually being eaten by children” as Cabinet is to discuss proposals to overhaul the free hot school meals programme after reviews revealed shortcomings in the service.

Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary is due to present the findings of two Government-commissioned reviews to Cabinet on Monday, which examine food standards and the experience of the School Meals Programme

He will seek Cabinet approval for a number of changes to the scheme, after it was discovered that roughly around 100,000 means are uneaten per day.

Approximately half a million hot school meals are delivered to primary schools across the country every day.

Ruth Hegarty, CEO of Food Policy Ireland, a campaign group specialising in food research, said that based on what has been reported so far, there is no “total transparency” regarding how many of the meals are meeting the nutritional standards.

“What it looks like is going to happen here with the report and the recommendations that are going to go to Cabinet is to make some tweaks to the model that's in place and then continue to kind of embed that model. 

'Overhaul' needed

“But really what we think is that there needs to be a total overhaul of this model and much more ambition,” Ms Hegarty told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Ms Hegarty said Food Policy Ireland is advocating for a "not-for-profit community model that would invest much more of that €3.20 [provided in State funding per pupil per day] back into putting good quality food on the plate and back into communities". 

She also said the meals cannot be taken home and reheated so they don’t go to waste, as the majority of the food has already been reheated.

She also pointed out another issue is that the meals arrive already packed, after “sweating away in transit” in the same packaging they’ve been heated in.

“The food at that point is not appetising. It doesn't look good. Many children just don't want to eat them, and they'll go hungry rather than eat them.

“Best practice is to serve meals in school, to have a very limited choice, but to have rotating menus where children are exposed to a variety of foods over a period of time, and where all children, this is really important, are really eating the same thing,” she said.

Calls for fresh milk to be available 

Meanwhile, the National Dairy Council has called for fresh milk to be made available, as an accompaniment to school meals, alongside water.

This comes as national dietary research undertaken by the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance found that 37% of Irish children had inadequate calcium intakes. 

Chief executive officer of the National Dairy Council, Emma Walls, said: “The Hot School Meals Programme is an important investment in children’s health, wellbeing and educational participation. 

“The independent national research shows that significant nutritional gaps already exist among Irish children and teenagers.

“As Cabinet considers the programme’s future, addressing those gaps should be at the centre of the discussion."

Ms Walls added: "Milk provides calcium, high-quality protein, iodine and other nutrients that support children’s growth and development." 

She added they would welcome the opportunity to work with Government on how fresh milk and other suitable dairy options could be incorporated into the programme in a practical way.