New programme launched to help feed school children during summer holidays

Five Service Providers across Tipperary will avail of the new Summer Meals Pilot Programme intended to ensure that children across Ireland receive a good meal daily throughout the school holidays.

“This Pilot Programme is intended to ensure that children get a hot meal every day during the weeks when schools are closed for the summer,” says Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry.

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Under the umbrella of Tipperary Education and Training Board, Youth Work Tipperary will drive the Programme by overseeing hot meals are provided daily at Thurles and Templemore Youth Projects, Tipperary Town Youth Project, North Tipperary Traveller Youth Project, Rural Outreach Project and Fethard & Killenaule Youth Project.

This incentive was launched by Minister for Education and Youth, Helen McEntee, in a bid to tackle holiday hunger across the country.

The Pilot Programme will run in a select number of UBU Your Place Your Space Youth Services in June, July, and August this year and is part of the Government’s wider plan to end child poverty.

The programme is being developed by the Department of Education and Youth, working closely with the Child Poverty and Well-Being Office in the Department of the Taoiseach.

The meals will be provided through ‘UBU Your Place Your Space’, a National Scheme that funds youth services for young people aged 10 to 24.

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These services support young people who may be vulnerable or facing difficult life situations.

Across 16 Education and Training Board areas, 41 UBU-funded youth services have signed up to take part in the pilot.

They will try out different ways of giving meals to young people, including having meals prepared and delivered or alternatively, cooking meals on-site at Youth Centres.

An independent evaluator, hired by Education and Training Boards Ireland, will review how the Pilot Programme works from start to finish and this will help decide if the programme should be expanded in future years.