We are under lockdown for the next two weeks, and schools are not set to reopen until – at the earliest – well after Easter.
However, The Department of Education has now confirmed that despite the new restrictions on movement, the resumption of free ‘school meals’ for around 250,000 school children across the state can go ahead.
As part of the state’s €57 million School Meals Programme, pupils at 1,580 schools and organisations, including 856 DEIS schools, are entitled to free school lunches.
But now, instead of daily lunches with the schools being closed, the new revised scheme suggests that the families of children and teens will receive weekly bags of food.
However, according to RTE News, a company that supplies schools has warned of shortages in the supply chain, as they have been forced to lay off a substantial number of workers in recent weeks as a result of the school closures.
And so now, Glanmore Foods has appealed to Irish food producers to contact them if they can supply staples like cheese in high quantities, as they want to be able to put together and deliver weekly bags to schools, that can then be distributed to families.
