Hot meals and child poverty

Sir, – As primary schools wind down for the summer holidays, we, alongside our members all across the country, brace for an increased demand for support from children and families. This is not support for new activities or trips away. The calls for support we receive are for the most basic and most essential of needs – food.

The latest data we have on poverty in Ireland (CSO, 2023) shows that children and young people have the highest rates of poverty of any age group in the State. Last year, 260,773 children experienced enforced deprivation. This means that they were living in households unable to afford two or more items on a list of 11 goods and services considered the norm in society. Two of the items on this list relate to food. In 2023, 4.2 per cent of children were living in households that were unable to afford a roast once a week. Children in one-parent families were almost twice as likely to experience this.

The hot school meals programme is an effective way to reach children and young people experiencing food poverty, guaranteeing at least one hot meal a day for children, many of whom will only get this meal in school.

It is commendable that the Government has, over multiple budget cycles, significantly expanded the provision of hot school meals to children and young people in Ireland now benefiting over 250,000 children, in communities across Ireland. An evaluation of the programme demonstrated just how positive the impact of the initiative has been with teachers reporting improvements in children’s attendance at school, their academic outcomes and even behaviour.

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For children and families experiencing consistent poverty, the hot school meals programme is a lifeline. However, the important role played by school meals means that when children are not in school, and not receiving school meals during mid-term, Christmas, Easter, and summer breaks, their risk of food poverty or “holiday hunger” increases. Through the generosity of our donors and funders, we have supported our members to meet the demand for food at their doorsteps and support children and families they work with over the past three years. We only need to look at last Christmas to get a sense of how serious this issue is with our food provision scheme supporting 6,000 children and over 3,400 families.

In Budget 2025, the Government can make a real and lasting impact in the lives of children and young people. As a society, we can all agree that no child or young person should be going hungry. The hot school meals programme is making brilliant in-roads during term time, but we need a pragmatic and proactive solution for what happens during holiday periods. On way of tackling the “holiday hunger” children are experiencing is to expand the school meals during school breaks. However, there are existing mechanisms at community level which are already in operation that could bridge this gap.

The Children’s Rights Alliance is calling for the introduction of a pilot programme with funding of €1 million to explore how to leverage existing community infrastructures such as youth clubs, family resource centres and community organisations that are uniquely placed to reach and support children most in need. We hope serious consideration is given to this ahead of Budget Day so families are not faced with an even more challenging Christmas. – Yours, etc,

TANYA WARD,

Chief Executive,

Children’s Rights Alliance,

Smithfield,

Dublin 7.