To ask the Minister of Education to detail any contingency measures in place to ensure children receive hot meals in school despite staff vacancies.

The Education Authority (EA) has a number of contingencies in place when disruption to school meal provision occurs and these are considered in the following order:

Meals can be transported from another school with a production kitchen if it has sufficient capacity;

Prepared meals can brought into the school, providing there are sufficient staff and oven capacity available to heat/ serve the meals;

A packed lunch service can be offered to all pupils, subject to the capacity of the external provider;

Packed lunches can be provided for pupils entitled to free school meals only, subject to the capacity of the external provider.

The EA continues to prioritise the preparation and serving of meals in a safe environment, meeting food safety regulations.