Free school meals are in demand. Within two months, 1302 schools have signed up for free food for their students or a shopping card.
That is one in six schools in the Netherlands. So far, applications from more than four hundred schools have been approved, says director Hans Spekman of the Youth Education Fund, which organizes the aid together with the Red Cross. “That is about 80,000 children that we can already help.” That number will rise to about 300,000, the Ministry of Education estimates. “You see, the need is there. I heard at a school in Amsterdam that children in the kindergarten group still had to learn to eat solid food. So they live on milk, porridge, the teat, because there is no money for other food.”
Most schools requesting help are located in South (387) and North Holland (238). These provinces also have the most schools, where at least 30 percent of pupils come from families with a relatively low income. This is a condition for the free school meals, which should ensure that children from poor families receive at least one nutritious meal a day.
Big problem
The Red Cross is surprised at the speed with which the registrations are coming in. “We estimated that there would be a lot of enthusiasm,” says deputy director Heleen van den Berg of the Red Cross. The problem is big, she says. In the Netherlands, approximately 400,000 people experience some form of hunger, for example because they skip a meal due to lack of money. “But the pace surprised us. Then it is also hard with the budget.”
At the end of March, the Ministry of Education announced that 100 million euros will be available this year for school meals for which primary and secondary schools can register. The pot of money is ‘enough for now’, says Van den Berg. Also for schools that are still going to register at school meals.nl. Whether there will also be money to pay for the meals in 2024 is not yet known.
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