Dear Editor,
During my time in a Deis school, I notably participated in the implementation of warm school meals in the year 2020. Hear-say indicates profound gains from offering warm school meals, specifically in less privileged areas. Enhanced focus, reduction in disruptive behaviour, and elevated student attendance trends have been witnessed.
I adamantly believe that the programme has the capability to transform lives, yet I feel it still contains issues that require complete refinement. Daily, delivering meals to half a million pupils will ultimately lead to a vast litter problem on a local level for schools and a wider environmental issue for the nation. Data from America suggests around 15% of waste is the product of school meals.
In Ireland, this simply means approximately 75,000 school meals are wasted every week. It’s a concern that’s made some colleagues hesitant about adopting the meal initiative. Nevertheless, there exist thoroughly researched solutions. For instance, the English Market in Cork has been converting food waste into reusable soil quite successfully in a short amount of time, under the auspices of the Cork Urban Soil Project, for some years now.
Were every school involved in the programme equipped with bio-digesters, it would address the waste problem instantly and set a wonderful example for our pupils concerning reusing and recycling. This would need significant monetary contributions from the Departments of Environment and Education but it would be a welcome change, displaying that a Government has at last furnished a long-term plan to back a highly beneficial initiative.
Yours sincerely,
Aidan Boyle,
Former Headmaster, Scoil Cholmcille SNS,
Ballybrack, County Dublin.