THREE more schools are to offer hot meals this year, it has been announced.
And the government hopes to make them available in all primary schools by September 2024.
Grands Vaux, Plat Douet and Springfield will start serving hot meals this term.
The government is also inviting expressions of interest from companies who could provide meals in a further five schools – Bel Royal, St Saviour, Rouge Bouillon, First Tower and d’Auvergne – from April.
Companies who are interested have until noon next Monday to register on the government’s online procurement portal – procontract.due-north.com.
A total of £1.6 million has been made available to create serveries in each primary school and provide the equipment needed to serve hot meals.
Children’s and Education Minister Inna Gardiner (pictured above) said that a child’s ‘regular access to healthy food’ leads to ‘improvements in concentration, energy and engagement while they are at school’.
She added: ‘We know that it is more challenging to provide a healthy packed lunch, especially with the increased food prices we’ve seen over the last year. I am working with officers to make sure that more children can benefit from healthy hot meals.
‘To scale up the programme to the numbers needed, I am pleased to say that we will continue our successful partnership with Flourish [Caring Cooks’ school meals programme] and we look forward to working with the team from the Health and Community Services catering department and building new relationships with further providers.’
‘Together, we will continue to make progress in delivering this incredibly ambitious – and incredibly important – programme of work.’
