Katriona O'Sullivan: 'The rhetoric around whether the hot school meals are good enough is infuriating and stinks of ignorance'

"I am often asked why I went to school when I didn't have to. My answer is always the same: for the food (and the hugs). School wasn't just a place to learn. It was where I knew I would be fed, and where there were adults who noticed if I was cold, tired, or a bit lost. That mattered more than any lesson I learned that day."

"Which is probably why I find myself really frustrated listening to the way we are talking about the hot school meals programme that has been recently introduced in the primary school system."

School provided reliable meals and physical comfort, including hugs, for a child who did not have to attend. Adults at school noticed when the child was cold, tired, or lost and intervened with care. Those practical supports and emotional attentions mattered more than academic lessons on any given day. The recent rollout of a hot school meals programme in primary schools is being discussed in ways that overlook the fundamental role meals play in children's wellbeing. Conversations that focus narrowly on logistics or cost risk missing how school meals function as social protection and everyday caregiving.

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