Shock at school meal price rise

Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Chris Quinn, has said he is “flabbergasted” that families are facing a second increase in school meal prices within a year.

A meal in a nursery, primary or special school which cost £2.60 at the end of 2025 will now cost £3.40, an increase of almost 31%. Post-primary pupils face a further 15% increase, following a 20% rise in January.

Commissioner Chris Quinn said: “I am genuinely flabbergasted that families are being asked to absorb another significant increase in the cost of school meals.

“A primary school dinner which cost £2.60 at the end of last year will now cost £3.40. That is an increase of almost 31% in around a year.

“What makes this particularly difficult to accept is that it comes shortly after schools were directed towards energy-saving guidance advising people who were cold to wear more clothes rather than turn up the thermostat.

“I strongly advised the Education Authority to remove that guidance and also made clear that responsibility for financial pressures in education should not be transferred to children and families.

“The same principle applies here. Children did not create the financial crisis in education, and they should not be expected to pay the price for it.

“School meals are not a luxury. For many children they are an essential part of the school day, and these increases will hit families already struggling with the cost of living the hardest.

“Research that we published last year showed that 41% of children living in poverty do not qualify for free school meals. EA have clearly overlooked or ignored this worrying statistic.’’

“The Department of Education and the Education Authority need to explain how these increases were arrived at, how their impact on children and families has been assessed and, crucially, what is being done to stop the burden of an inadequate education budget continually being passed down to children.”

Meanwhile, UNISON said it was dismayed by the announcement from the Education Authority (EA) that it intends to take forward a number of saving measures this month including increasing the price of paid school meals for the second year running. The planned increase will take the price of a primary or special school meal to £3.40 and will see cafeteria prices in secondary schools rise by 15%.

Commenting on the EA announcement, UNISON Regional Organiser Joe McCusker said: ‘‘UNISON, alongside other education support service unions, has criticised the EA’s plans which we consider to be intolerable and undeliverable.

We are particularly concerned about the price increase for school meals and the impact on families who do not meet the narrow criteria for free school meals, but who struggle to cover the cost of the school day. Research by the NI Commissioner for Children and Young People shows that 41% of children in poverty are not eligible for a free school meal. Those children are most at risk of losing access to a nutritious, hot meal in school when the price goes up.

As a union, we have been campaigning for many years for the introduction of universal free school meals for all children, and Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK with no universal school meal policy in place. Instead, families here are forced to take on even higher costs to feed their children while in school.

Commenting further, UNISON Head of Bargaining and Representation John Patrick Clayton said:

‘‘The unacceptable funding position that our education services are in has once again been highlighted by today’s announcement from the EA.

The EA, the Department of Education and the NI Executive all have responsibilities to ensure that every child has equal access to their right to an education. This includes ensuring education services are adequately funded to remove barriers like the cost of food, transport and equipment.

This savings plan also comes at a time when our members in education support services are being denied the pay rise to which they are legally entitled and our teaching colleagues are in dispute over workload. NI urgently needs a budget settlement that can sustain our public services and put right the damage caused by years of underfunding. Families should not be expected to bear the brunt of political failure. The EA must urgently reconsider these proposals.”