Hot meals 'hopefully' in primary schools by 2030

Hot meals will "hopefully" be rolled out across primary schools by the next general election, a leading politician says.

Guernsey's Education President Paul Montague said his committee was continuing work started by the previous States government to consider introducing the provision before 2030.

Currently, none of the island's 12 mainstream primary schools offer hot meals to pupils.

Montague said a "range of options" were being considered by him and the committee which included offering children from lower income households free meals.

Montague said the work sat alongside other committee priorities.

"I think it's wrong to say that everything has to be done sequentially, you can do lots of things at the same time," he said.

"There are some some kind of easier wins that you can get on with so meals for young people I think is something we don't want to drag our feet on too long.

"We genuinely think in terms of the health and wellbeing of young people, it's something that parents would appreciate, particularly for young people from more deprived backgrounds."

Montague said colleagues had visited Jersey, where hot meals have been offered since 2024, to see how the food was provided there.

"There's lots of different options," he added.

St Helier Constable Inna Gardiner was one of four education ministers to oversee the introduction of hot lunches in Jersey's primary schools.

She said the government started with "pilot schools" to figure out how it would work.

"We started to work with our hospital kitchen and see how much scale up we could have," she said.

"But on this small island, to produce for all primary schools a meal a day, it was challenging."

Gardiner said along with government funding, planning applications might also be needed as some schools might not be built specifically to serve hot meals.

She said: "Some of the buildings are historic heritage buildings - how do you create a kitchen within the heritage building that will be connected to the place where food can be served?"

Ali de Carteret, family support worker at the charity Homestart, said introducing hot meals at schools could end up having a mix of pros and cons.

De Carteret said they had the potential to be good for some pupils and their families.

"I think it would be great for low-income families because it'd be less stress about what they're needing to get for lunch boxes," De Carteret said.

"That is getting more and more complicated as dietary requirements and allergies go on and on and on.

"It will then give children an equal opportunity to try different things and try them with their peers which I find children are more likely to do if they're trying different things with friends rather than with family."

However, De Carteret said she is worried about the impact having larger hot meals in schools could have on family time at home.

"We're always striving to see parents spending more time with their children, when we live in a society now where it's very much work, work, work," she said.

"A lot of children are obviously having to go into childcare sooner than perhaps parents would have liked.

"They then have to go into breakfast clubs and after school clubs, so having tea time brings the family together to spend time together."

Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.