News item | 04-10-2022 | 16:17
At 500 primary schools with a large proportion of vulnerable pupils, a free school breakfast will be offered immediately. The Ministries of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) and Education, Culture and Science (OCW) are making € 5 million available to the Youth Education Fund to give the students of these schools a good start to the day for a period of 4 months.
Life has become much more expensive in a short time, grocery prices are rising. This becomes visible in various ways, also in the school classroom. There are children who come to school on an empty stomach. This has undesirable consequences for the development and learning performance of the child.
Minister Schouten (Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions): “Children who grow up in families that are having a hard time financially should not be the victims of this. We must not accept that they start the school day with an empty stomach. That is why we are now focusing more quickly on aid at schools where the need is high.”
Minister Wiersma (Primary and Secondary Education): “We must do everything that is now necessary to ensure that children who are having difficulties at home learn carefree at school. In anticipation of the elaboration of school lunches for children, we are now taking the first step: guaranteeing a breakfast for children where this is not obvious.”
As of January 1, the minimum wage will increase by 10%, rent and health care benefits will increase and parents will receive a higher child-related budget. According to the CPB’s estimate, these measures will reduce child poverty in 2023. The price ceiling for energy costs will then also be in effect. The temporary school breakfast therefore serves as a bridge to the aforementioned purchasing power measures for the coming year.
In addition to the efforts of the Youth Education Fund at the 500 schools where they are active, ministers Schouten and Wiersma have asked the Child Poverty Alliance to support even more schools through existing and yet to be formed local alliances to combat hunger in the classroom. Exactly how this will take shape will be worked out in more detail in the near future so that the workload for schools does not increase. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science will shortly elaborate on the school lunches, in consultation with all the campaigns initiated by the Ministries of SZW and VWS. This gives substance to a parliamentary motion that calls for meals to be offered at school, especially at schools in vulnerable neighbourhoods.