100 schools in Brabant have signed up for free school meals for vulnerable students. Initiators the Red Cross and Youth Education Fund report this to Omroep Brabant on Friday. It concerns students in primary and secondary education. The initiative is intended to ensure that fewer pupils are hungry in class.
Schools have been able to sign up for the program for about two months now. A number of schools have already started distributing meals or providing shopping cards.
For privacy reasons, the organizations do not want to say which schools are involved. There are a total of 1302 registered schools in the Netherlands. The majority of the participating schools come from South Holland (387) and North Holland (238).
Low income or special education
Schools where 30 percent or more of the pupils come from low-income families can make use of the school meals. Students in special education are also eligible. A total of 300,000 students can be helped.
Participating schools can choose between ‘meal at school’ and ‘meal at home’. With the first option, the school receives 9 euros per pupil per week. Through the meal at home option, parents of students who need it most can receive shopping cards worth 11 euros per child per week.
The Netherlands has a total of around eight thousand schools in primary, secondary and special education. With the 1302 schools that have registered, this means that one in six schools in the Netherlands now provides meals because students regularly go to school with an empty stomach, according to the Red Cross.