Ms Sinéad Keenan:

I am with Healthy Food for All, a charity that addresses food poverty. We do that by supporting community and school food initiatives across the country. We try to empower people at local level to address their food needs and we also raise awareness at policy level about the barriers people face accessing a healthy diet.

Food is central to the experience of poverty. One in five children go to school or to bed hungry because there is not enough food in the home. That is a shocking statistic in this day and age. One in six children attends school without having breakfast according to a report, Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, which was launched last week by the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar. Poor nutrition and the lack of an adequate diet have a negative impact on children. It impacts on their ability to participate in the education system during the school day and is related to poor attendance and punctuality. It is also associated with disruptive behaviour.

We have developed resources from our work in schools across the country. We have a good practice guide for school food initiatives and breakfast clubs. We provide training to schools and signpost them to the different resources that are available to them. I am privileged to have worked with many schools and to have seen the impact that school food initiatives, particularly breakfast clubs, have had on children. I can tell the committee wonderful stories about the life-changing impact of a child coming to school at 9.30 a.m. because a breakfast club is available from 7.50 a.m. A parent volunteer told me last week that it is the most important hour of her day and she would never give it up. She is long-term unemployed. She also told me about a child who had communication issues and who was very silent. After involvement with the breakfast club the child has opened up and is engaging more.

Amazing work is taking place across the country. However, it is happening on an ad hocbasis and what is required is a systematic approach based on the needs of the child. That is the core consideration to bear in mind in any work we do on school food. A national food in schools forum is required. Currently, five Government Departments have a role in school food provision. The school meals programme is a vital resource and it impacts on over 200,000 children, but it is a challenge for schools to avail of this funding. Over 100 DEIS, delivering equality of opportunities in schools, schools do not avail of the funding and a huge number of non-DEIS schools we have engaged with are unable to draw down the funding but would have significant numbers of children from a disadvantaged background.

The Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures policy framework identifies the Department of Social Protection as the lead Department with responsibility to progress this. However, we believe it must be linked. The missing piece of the puzzle is policy coherence across Departments. There should be a national food in schools forum to develop a strategy that will meet the needs of children and support schools to avail of the funding. Infrastructure is one of the challenges schools face. We must link with the education budget. The recent budget commitment to school infrastructure must be explicitly related to building kitchens for schools, which is a support for the school food programme. We must expand the school meals programme to support children coming from a disadvantaged background even if they are not attending a DEIS school.

We must ensure we are measuring this issue and that it is included in, for example, the Growing Up in Ireland survey. There must also be a training and support package to build the capacity of schools to deliver a school food programme that meets the needs of the child.