Cost of Living: Free meals offered at certain schools across Northern Ireland due to increased financial pressures and hardship

By Joanne Savage
Published 8th Sep 2022, 10:31 BST
Updated 8th Sep 2022, 10:32 BST
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A number of schools are offering free breakfasts and others offering hot dinners

Prices are rising faster than they have done for 40 years with inflation above 10% and as we all know, energy bills especially have sky-rocketed, putting immense pressure on families on the lower end of the financial bracket.

Around 100,000 children in Northern Ireland are entitled to free school meals, which is around 30% (almost a third) of the total school population.

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Among the schools to offer complimentary meals to an increased number of pupils since the start of the new term are Belfast Boys' Model and Belfast Girls' Model.

Numerous schools across NI including Girls and Boys Model and Hazelwood are doing their utmost to ease the burden on cash strapped families by providing free school mealsNumerous schools across NI including Girls and Boys Model and Hazelwood are doing their utmost to ease the burden on cash strapped families by providing free school meals
Numerous schools across NI including Girls and Boys Model and Hazelwood are doing their utmost to ease the burden on cash strapped families by providing free school meals

Both are large non-selective post-primary schools in north Belfast with more than 1,000 pupils each.

Belfast Girls' Model is to provide all of its new pupils in Year 8 with a complimentary school meal until Christmas and will give all of its pupils a complimentary Christmas dinner.

The school also said it hoped to offer a free meal to every student during the winter months.

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At Belfast Boys' Model, meanwhile, all pupils are being offered a free breakfast.

The school canteen will provide a cooked breakfast, cereal, fruit or bread to any of the school's 1,000 pupils who require it up until Christmas.

The school's principal Mary Montgomery told another online news outlet that in the first week of term alone, around 200 boys a day had been turning up to get breakfast.

The school had also provided free meals to all pupils in June, and hoped to offer free dinners over the winter, but this would depend on the school finding the requisite funding.

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At Hazelwood Integrated College, any of the school's 1,000 pupils can also get a free breakfast if desired.

The school has also been providing free hot dinners to any pupil who wants one for the last two Decembers, and plan to do the same again this year.

While the school has provided breakfast and December meals since 2020, its principal said that demand had increased, as had that for a school uniform swap shop which ran over the summer.

Some other schools across Northern Ireland have made similar decisions.

Related topics:Northern IrelandBelfast