The Hot School Meals programme is crucial for families living in poverty.
That’s according to various speakers at Thursday’s meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, including Stephen Moffat, national policy manager at Barnardos, who said that meals are a “constant stress” for families that avail of the charities services.
Barnardos said a report it published in July found that 40% of parents skipped meals or reduced portion size so their children would have enough to eat.
However, celebrity chef and founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School Darina Allen, who was also at the meeting, said the programme is “not fit for purpose” due to a lack of transparency and the presence of “ultra processed food”.
The meeting was chaired by Roscommon-based Fine Gael Senator Gareth Scahill and he has been giving more details to Midwest Radio’s Scott Stephens…
