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Tackling Holiday Hunger Bill Consultation - Karen Mullan MLA
This Private Members Bill (PMB) is about legislating to provide direct support to children entitled to free school meals and their families throughout school holiday periods.
Childhood hunger is a reality here in the North of Ireland. During school holidays up to 100,000 children are missing out on their free school meal. That is almost 1 in 4 school children.
In the north, a child is entitled to free school meals if their parents earn less than £14,000 a year or receive certain social security payments.
Families who are already struggling financially, are impacted by the additional cost of providing extra food for their children while at home during the school holidays.
The Trussell Trust food-bank network has reported that in Britain, holidays place extra burdens on family budgets with the loss of free school meals adding between £30 and £40 per week to parents' outgoings for one child.
The Trussell Trust confirmed a 17% increase in children in the north of Ireland using food banks during July and August compared to May and June, and this was before the onset of COVID.
This year the Trust reported a soaring 81% increase for emergency food parcels from food banks in its network during the last two weeks of March 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
The links between educational underachievement and deprivation are well known and the evidence suggests that children returning to school can often be weeks or months intellectually behind classmates who have access to a more wholesome diet during the holidays.
The onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency provided a unique opportunity to do things differently this year.
Direct payments have been made regularly to the families of over 100,000 children. Thousands of food parcels and cheques have been provided for those harder to reach families. The Executive found the mechanisms and the means to address holiday hunger this year and it is welcome that it has committed to addressing the issue of holiday hunger until Easter 2022.
Articles 58 and 59 of the Education and Libraries (NI) Order 1986, as amended, require the Education Authority (EA) and Boards of Governors (BoGs) of Voluntary Grammar Schools (VGS) and Grant Maintained Integrated Schools (GMIS) to provide milk, meals and other refreshments and the facilities to consume them, in accordance with arrangements approved by the Department.
What is now needed is legislation to make a long-term commitment so that children who need free school meals, and their families, are supported to ensure children get the nutrition that they need to help them fulfil their potential beyond Easter 2022.
Sinn Féin want to ensure that no child goes hungry.