The government completes with almost 100 million lei the funding for the “Healthy Meal” Program in 2024, less than 2 months before the end of classes in the current school year / About 62,000 students would benefit from the supplement

A draft decision on the table of the government meeting on Tuesday allocates 97 million lei for the financing of the “Healthy Meal” national program for the year 2024, in addition to the approximately 1.02 billion lei allocated through a previous decision, adopted at the end of February. The government estimates that the number of beneficiaries of this additional allocation will be 62,771 students during the year 2024.

• The measure enters the government’s agenda during the holiday preceding the last module of the current school year and less than two months before its end. And this, given that, according to World Vision Romania estimates, no less than 64% of the schools declared eligible, initially, did not manage to implement the “Healthy Meal” program, whose purpose is to support the participation in education of children from areas at risk of school dropout and exclusion.

According to the GD project on the government’s agenda today, 97,099 thousand lei (about 97 million lei) are allocated “for the financing of the national program ‘Healthy meal’, during the period of teaching activities in 2024”. The same project slightly modifies the amount of funding established by the previous HG – HG 177/2024, adopted in February – which established the initial funding of the program at around 1.02 billion lei.

The explanatory note states that the amount of 97 million lei represents the financing for 242 additional unitsthe GD project also supplementing the amount for six schools already included in the program.

• The list of schools benefiting from this supplement, at the end of the article

The substantiation note also shows that the amount allocated for 2024, for the implementation of the “Healthy Meal” program, is approx. 1.13 billion lei (1,139,400 thousand lei), according to the December ordinance that established this funding. But the amount allocated in February and the amount allocated now – 1.01 billion lei, respectively 97 million lei) totals less than the allocation of 1.13 billion lei – namely 1,116,322 thousand lei.

In his report two weeks ago, “Are Romania’s children fed enough ? Meals at school and meals at home”World Vision Romania showed that the “Healthy Meal” National Program (PNMS), applied this school year, in continuation of similar ones carried out in previous years, was actually implemented in just over a third of the 450 selected schools.

This failure is recorded in the conditions where the meal received by the students through the “Healthy Meal” represents, according to the cited report, the main meal of the day for half (49%) of the students from the schools included in the PNMS. For almost a quarter of these students (22%), it is the only meal of the day.

And this table turned, for almost two thirds of the beneficiaries, in a sandwich (food package):

• 9% of the schools in the sample opted for self-prepared hot meals
• 28% for hot meals in catering mode
• 63% for the food package option

Edupedu.ro reported that the number of students benefiting from the “Healthy Meal” program should increase substantially following the new Pre-University Education Law. Its provisions, according to which 1 million students must benefit from the current school year of “Healthy Meals”, have already been postponed, and in the measures adopted in the meantime by the government, it started with fewer children than required by law – about 500,000.

The list of schools that benefit from this supplement, according to the Annex to the draft GD:

Read also:

The “Healthy Meal” program – applied in only one third of the selected schools, and so there are too few compared to what the Deca Iohannis Law requires – World Vision Report / There is too little money allocated, hot meals – often replaced by packages / The food thus received – the main meal of the day for half of the students in the program

OFFICIAL The list of schools included in the “Healthy Meal” program in 2024 has been updated

The “healthy meal” program for which the Government pays 15 lei per student: It is very possible to increase the amount “in a future program”, says Sorin Ion / Principal of the Pesceana school from Vâlcea county: A catered meal costs 18 lei, if you pick it up, not with delivery

Less than half of the students covered by the Deca-Iohannis law will receive “healthy meals” in schools this school year. The decision was approved by the Government 4 months before school ended

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