'Support our young children who are being robbed of this basic necessity'

In November 2024, The Department of Education opened a consultation on Free School Meals provision and Uniform Grants in Northern Ireland. 

We're delighted to see the Department take an interest in reviewing school food provision, and were keen to add the thoughts of our young Northern Irish Food Ambassadors to the consultation.

The Food Ambassadors are citizens from across the UK, with lived experience of food insecurity, who contribute to and inform our campaigns, research and wider work. We currently work with approximately 25 young people aged 14-18 years. We believe their voices and insights are critical in policymaking.

The young ambassadors made two asks to Department of Education:

1: Prioritise ensuring children from families on low incomes have school food provision:

By ensuring that food provision starts with those who cannot necessarily afford or access a healthy diet, the Department would be supporting more equitable health and educational outcomes for children in Northern Ireland. The Food Foundation’s recent research shows that poorer families with children lack access to healthy diets: 

• On average, healthier foods are more than twice as expensive per calorie as less healthy foods, with healthier food increasing in price at twice the rate in the past two years (The Food Foundation, 2025).  
• To afford the government-recommended healthy diet, the most deprived fifth of the population would need to spend 45% of their disposable income on food, rising to 70% for those households with children (The Food Foundation, 2025) 

The food ambassadors also shared their insights:

"Being financially unstable shouldn't mean children should starve. I believe younger pupils are important but I really don’t feel we should completely neglect secondary school pupils" - Food Ambassador, 14, Belfast

"The impact of starvation is immense in our society, especially for young children. When people like my friends are deprived of food at school, limiting their abilities, they resort to illicit actions like stealing other people's dinner cards to even get one meal for their day.

This may be considered unlawful in the eyes of others, but when we try to walk in their shoes, it's understandable that it's their only alternative to concentrate and display their strength in school.

I urge that the Department of Education and our Government  take this into consideration and support our young children who are being robbed of this basic necessity.

Putting food on the plate is a primary need, especially for poor families whose children will need energy to listen in lessons and succeed in school" - Mithesh, 15, Belfast

Given the data and their experiences, the young Food Ambassadors asserted that the Department should prioritise a focus on support for families on lower incomes as an important investment in children’s futures and public health.

2: Implement some form of universal free school meals as seen in the rest of the UK

While the ambassadors maintained that children from families on lower incomes should be prioritised, they did not shy away from talking about the advantages universal free school meals.

Currently, Northern Ireland is the only nation that has no form of universal provision. The ambassadors felt that implementing universal free school meals for younger age groups would act as a first step to universal free school meals. We know that universal free school meals:

• Improves behaviour, learning and attainment (Department for Education 2012; ISER, 2024)
• Means everyone benefits from the physical, including reduction in obesity rates (ISER 2024) and mental health benefits of FSM (Impact on Urban Health, 2024). 
• Helps families with household budgets (ISER 2024) 
• Uptake of free school meals among students already eligible (ISER 2024)  
• Helps to reduce poverty-related stigma associated with free school provision only being available to those from low-income backgrounds (Cohen, J. et al., 2021).

Here are the ambassadors' thoughts:

"If I am honest, I don’t think the Department will be able to extend universal free school meals from nursery to year 14 with their budget. If they could, I’d love it! But I don’t think they are going to do that, so I’d suggest having universal free school meals for the first three years and raising the income threshold so that more children from low-income families get free school meals" - Mithesh, 15, Belfast

"My goal to help more poor families, because something is obviously better than nothing. I'm not saying we're supposed to neglect healthy meals for all, but the priority is ensuring everyone has something to eat and then when we have that, we can scale up universal provision for all children" - Young Food Ambassador, 14, Belfast

At The Food Foundation we would love to see universal free school meals for all children in education. However, all four nations are far away from this reality.

For us, the first step is ensuring that all children from families on universal credit are eligible to free school meals. Without this support, young people are going hungry.

This final point from our young Food Ambassador underlines the impact food insecurity has on young people’s right now and on their futures: 

"Hunger can negatively impact their physical health, emotional well-being, and academic performance. I have seen a classmate of mine struggling to concentrate in class due to hunger, leading to lower grades and a lack of motivation.

Socially, they feel embarrassed or isolated if they cannot afford lunch, which can lead to low self-esteem and difficulty forming friendships.

In some cases, this may also expose them to bullying or exclusion from peer groups. One of the biggest impacts is social interaction - some children hide the fact that they cannot afford food, leading to feelings of shame and social withdrawal. If this is left unattended, it may result in bullying, as other students notice their struggles.

The fact that I have seen this first hand just shows how common this is in any school. Therefore, I hope the Department of Education can make further progress in this area to address this issue." - Young Food Ambassador, 14, Belfast.

DEFINITIONS

Who are the Department of Education? They are the government department that looks after the education and wellbeing of every child and young person in Northern Ireland. 

What is a consultation? Consultation plays a vital role in assessing the views of those who will be affected by policy decisions, helping to raise awareness of issues and problems. The government is sourcing public opinion but not obliged to follow it. 

Free School Meals are when children can get their lunch in school for free because their households meet certain entitlement criteria based on their financial circumstances.

A uniform grant is money given to families to help them to buy school uniforms for their children.

Eligible means that someone is allowed to get something because they meet a set of rules. In this case, getting Free School Meals and uniform grants depends on how much money a family earns.

COMPARISONS WITH OTHER NATIONS

• Scotland have also introduced Free School Meals for pupils in primary P6 and P7 if their parent/carer receives the Scottish Child Payment