Letter: Profit-making from school meals in Northern Ireland can’t be allowed - any pricing structure should be transparent
A letter from Kate Evans:
As a councillor, I am deeply concerned by the growing cost of school meals and the principle that parts of our education system may be generating income from children’s most basic need – food.
No school should be making a surplus or profit from feeding children.
Regardless of a child’s home financial situation, every pupil should be able to access a hot, nutritious meal during the school day without families feeling exploited or penalised.
I have formally asked the minister of education to clarify whether it is acceptable for any part of the education system to generate income from children’s need for food, and to detail who is responsible for setting school canteen prices, what oversight exists, and what safeguards are in place to prevent schools charging more than the actual cost of providing meals.
While around 90,000 children are entitled to free school meals, many families sit just above the eligibility threshold.
These families are often under significant financial pressure but receive no support, and they are the ones most affected by rising prices.
Access to affordable food during the school day must be recognised as a child welfare issue, not simply a matter of parental choice.
The suggestion that families can simply provide packed lunches ignores the reality that pupils have limited alternatives during the school day.
Children cannot leave school to seek cheaper options, and packed lunches are not always a realistic or equitable substitute for a hot meal.
I am particularly troubled by examples of excessive pricing for basic items. If I can purchase 12 bottles of water from a supermarket for £1.97, it is simply unacceptable that children are being charged £1 for a single bottle of water in school.
This raises serious questions about fairness, value and whether pupils are being treated as a captive market.
The minister’s response confirms that while the Education Authority sets prices in most schools, voluntary grammar and grant-maintained integrated schools can set their own prices, and are not prevented from charging more than the cost of production. That position is not good enough.
Schools are places of learning, care, and development – not commercial environments where children’s needs are used to balance budgets.
Any pricing structure for school meals should be transparent, tightly regulated and strictly limited to recovering costs only.
I will continue to press the minister and the Department of Education to ensure that no child is disadvantaged during the school day because of their family’s income, and that no school is allowed to profit from feeding our children.
Kate Evans, UUP councillor