In an article this week, French woman Claire-Marie Murray spoke about how she is “horrified at the quality” of the mass-produced food for schools in the State.
Murray is one of a growing number of parents and concerned NGOs calling for big changes to the hot school meals scheme, including mandatory procurement targets for sourcing from local and organic farms.
In the piece, Murray, who is based in Ireland, notes that France’s school meal scheme has greatly evolved and that the food is no longer mass produced there.
Access for all primary schoolchildren in the State to free hot meals under the scheme has been widely welcomed. However, Murray’s comments underline how the make-up of the programme remains a source of contention, even amid efforts to remove food that is high in saturated fat, sugar and salt from lunch menus.
RM Block
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Are you happy with the free hot meals on offer at your child’s school? Is there anything you would like to see included as standard in the scheme that is currently not present? Do you feel the food is too mass-produced? Or do you feel your child is missing out as a result of their school not participating in the scheme?
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