Not just junior high schools: the government has expanded the free lunch program for schoolchildren

Starting from the new school year, the government is expanding the free school lunch program. For the first time, free lunches will be provided not only to elementary school students, but also to middle and high school students in a number of regions most affected by the war.

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Education.

It is expected that from September 2025, all students in grades 1–11 in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions will be entitled to free school meals. Currently, this program is only valid for children in grades 1–4 in all regions of Ukraine.

The government has allocated about 800 million hryvnias from the state budget to implement the initiative. The goal of the program is not only to ease the burden on families in wartime conditions, but also to provide students with high-quality, safe, and balanced food.

This step is part of a broader school nutrition reform that aims to create a culture of healthy eating among children and their families. The ministry emphasizes that special attention is being paid to areas where food security is most acute due to hostilities and a difficult humanitarian situation.

The program also includes monitoring the quality of products and compliance with modern standards of food preparation in schools. According to government officials, the expansion of the initiative will be an important contribution to supporting Ukrainian children during the war and will help form the basis for the healthy development of the future generation.

We would like to remind you that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has established that the 2025/2026 academic year in general secondary education institutions will last from September 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. At the same time, the final structure of the educational process, including the dates of completion of classes and holidays, will be determined by the schools themselves, taking into account the security situation and the needs of students.

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