Huge cost of free hot meals for Laois children at big Portlaoise schools revealed

The cost of providing hot meals to Laois school children is revealed in new contract offers from two Portlaoise schools which reveal that more than €2 m has to be spent to feed more than 1,000 pupils for three years. 

The boards of management at Scoil Bhríde NS in Knockmay and the Holy Family Senior School in Summerhill have just published tenders inviting bids. Between them, the schools educate nearly 1,400 boys and girls in Portlaoise.

Both are seeking proposals for the provision of hot meals under the School Meals Scheme, which is funded through the Department of Social Protection (DSP).

In the tender seen by the Leinster Express / Laois Live Scoil Bhride says the school intends to facilitate the availability of daily meals during the school year to 727 students. 

It estimates the value of the contract at almost €1.3 m for 36 months of meals.

For its part, the Holy Family school has told potential suppliers that the school intends to facilitate the availability of this service each school day of the school year for 650 students. 

It values the potential contract at over €1.1 m for 36 months of meals.

Both schools, which are under Catholic Church patronage, have outlined various options for the type of service that can be offered, varying from off-site preparation to on-site preparation of meals.

Interested bidders in the catering business have been told that there is no automatic entitlement to public funding in any year and all applications are considered on the available budget for the Scheme. The tender says, therefore, that the contract is entirely dependent on funding, and the Contracting Authority reserves the right to cancel the competition or the contract in the event that funding is no longer available or forthcoming.

Funding under the School Meals Local Projects Scheme is based on a rate of payment per meal, per child, per day with €3.20 for each hot meal supplied. MORE BELOW PHOTO.

Scoil Bhríde on Harpurs Lane and Holy Family Senior School in Portlaoise are two of the biggest primary schools in Laois.

The Government announced in Budget 2025 that the Hot School Meals would be extended to all remaining primary schools in 2025. It said this meant that there would be 3,200 eligible schools in respect of 550,000 children from September 2025.

There is no funding available from school meals to employ staff to manage the scheme in schools. Bank charges are also not covered.

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The Department says school should find a company who is able to provide it with the school meals based on the schools’ facilities. It adds that it is between the school and the supplier on how the service is delivered to the school. There are a number of suppliers and each one can operate differently from another according to the Department which says meals are at a standard rate so schools can select the supplier that can offer the best food quality and different menu options.

Secondary schools cannot avail of the hot meals scheme but can qualify for other food supply initiatives for students.