\n The milestone comes as part of the Universal Primary Free School Meals programme, which began in 2022 and now offers every child in every Welsh primary school a free meal each day.\n<\/p>\n
\n First minister Eluned Morgan said: “Serving up school dinners to all our primary pupils for free provides vital support.\n<\/p>\n
\n “A year on from introducing the scheme to everyone, Wales is still the only UK nation to provide a free healthy meal for every primary learner.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It makes sure that no child feels hungry during the school day.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It helps their concentration and wellbeing and enabling them to achieve their full potential.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The Welsh Government says the programme helps reduce health inequalities, encourages healthy eating, and supports children\u2019s learning and behaviour.\n<\/p>\n
\n The initiative also aims to source food locally where possible.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cabinet secretary for education, Lynne Neagle, said: “More than 50 million meals have been served since the introduction of Universal Primary Free School Meals, it is a remarkable milestone.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It is also a significant step in supporting Welsh families and tackling child poverty across our communities.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Work is underway to review school food regulations, with a public consultation open until the end of July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The milestone comes as part of the Universal Primary Free School Meals programme, which began in 2022 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-273449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114877228870354084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}