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Free school meals: 'This is affecting every family in Northern Ireland'

The Department of Education has axed "holiday hunger" payments for children entitled to free school meals.

Since July 2020, families of 96,000 children eligible for free school meals have received £27 per child each fortnight during school holidays.

The school holiday food grant was to help low-income families with the cost of feeding children.

But the department said it was ending the scheme "with great reluctance" but it no longer had funding.

It means that families will not receive the payments for the Easter school holidays, which are due to begin on Monday in many schools.

Parents and headteachers have been reacting and say it is a blow.

30 March 2023

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