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How can we help Limerick children who are hungry during school holidays?

Eoghan O’Byrne, Principal of St Mary’s National School Limerick, joins Joe to discuss the growing concern of child and food poverty.

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Duration:: 10m
Broadcast on:: 04 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

"Your views, your news, your limerick today with Jonet on Live 95" Food poverty is unfortunately a big issue for some families and in response there are calls for action to try to ensure that more is done to stop children going hungry. Children's rights alliance are calling in budget 2025, that the progress made so far should be built on and Ono Bern is principal at St Mary's National School in Limerick. Good morning to you on. Good morning Joe. Talk to me a bit then about your experience of this as a principle and what being done and what more needs to be done. Yeah I suppose I'm currently the principal in St Mary's National School in Limerick City last three years and in the school ourselves was we've seen a huge growth over the last three years our student population is up by 60%. So we're seeing different dynamics amongst that the parents in the school we have all parents in the family working we've long parents we have some children obviously who are living with resume guardians or grandparents. So we've seen a huge mix but what I've noticed is a particularly prevalent during Covid so I was the HSL teacher up in my old school in Lekayla and obviously schools were shut down for a long period of time and it became very obvious and that it was families are dependent on schools that defeat the children and when they're taken out of school for long periods of time it's the financial burden and the parents and the families that really suffer and the basic rights of children have been met they're not getting three or four meals a day and because I suppose they're not in the costs of the standard living and the moment the cost of living is grotesque at the moment people are struggling to do daily shops they're struggling to do weekly shops and what we're finding out is families are actually not doing weekly shops anymore they can't afford it so what they're doing is they're probably going and doing daily shops which in the long one is costing more money. Now I suppose what we need in the long one is we need joint commissioning we need a lot more of a joint collaborative approach between departments so at the moment inside schools a lot of the school meals suffer have been funded by the Department of Social Protection and they don't fund stuff in through any summer provision or Christmas provision or Easter provision so families that can often rely on maybe three meals a day in schools are left to fend for themselves for after eight weeks of time at summer. Now inside my own school and a lot of desk schools we do a lot of wraparound support services so we're able to fund different mechanisms of funding maybe after school provision we're funding breakfast clubs and there's obviously school meals and then through summer provision as well we're adding on today and they're still getting that provision but for example there's a lot of with regeneration and our families have been moved out into what we suppose class boys middle class schools and families like that are really falling through the cracks and it's this huge issue in society at the moment through poverty. I'm just up until at the moment it's in high street waiting to go in and speak to the children's guidelines and I suppose advocating for the families in Limerick City in particular to have more joint commissioning for departmental government agencies to work collaboratively together and not work in this silo silo thinking does not work and what we need is all the agencies all departments sitting down together and creating a wraparound support service where the most at-risk children in the country are getting their basic needs of food consumption. So on are you saying then that as you approach the summer holidays from school and other breaks Christmas for example it's in your head you know that there may be children in your school that need a way of getting food over the break. 100% and I suppose we've been very fortunate I'm up at table because we've linked in the last two years with the children's right lines and there is a food poverty fund for the Christmas period obviously Christmas there's huge expense there Christmas with toys and Santa and just general festivities as well. So what we've been looking off of I suppose in the last two years we got 10,000 two years ago and we got 12,000 last year and it's been absolutely fantastic I was able to give vouchers to every family in the school for our local super value and Patty McManer local butchers as well every family was given in excess of eight urine vouchers and then some families I suppose that have maybe two or three kids would have been doubled up in the vouchers so it's been fantastically of the fund up but that's only for Christmas and I suppose it's year and year there's no statutory funding around it we need consistent approach to these children would have consistent lives and they're not worrying and me as a school principal I'm not wearing this and I'm going to get this funding next Christmas and what are we going to do with Easter there's no funding around these divisions so do we run camps in school and same with summer vision we run into July and we're looking to I suppose to extend the food provision throughout the year and to make it a 52 week long approach now I said that needs a coordinated approach as well like who is going to deliver these foods or food vouchers at the summer time I suppose that's up to maybe principles to collaborate together and swap the system in place flash we're looking off in our school we have an extended learning opportunities coordinate that's probably funded and we can access supports like that but not every school has that luxury and so that's why we need statutory intervention and not to be reliant on philanthropic funding around like that we need consistency across the boards right um but within the schools it is fair to say that there has been a significant improvement right that there there has there has been a significant improvement like the free books is a welcome approach but Joe we've don't understand as well there's courts been made across all other trenches so I don't think there's been any huge significant increase in funding in the parent education so for example or um summer vision which we're looking at um our autumn times we have two autumn classes and we consider ourselves a highly inclusive school they're funding over the last two years has been caught by 50 percent so these invaluable service they're they're it's great announcing these free books and free meals for all schools but they're making general cuts across the board again our ancillary grant treatment cost we're we're struggling to pay our light and heat and again like that you're looking for alternative source of funding again I I'm blessed in my school that we get a lot of donations from different bodies and we can fund stuff with that but not everyone's in that that luxury but I genuinely these I welcome don't get me around I welcome free books for all I welcome free meals for all but I think just cuts been made elsewhere to make up for these and that's the issue I don't think there's been a huge increase in the parent expenditure budget now the thing is the government are being lobbied from everywhere as you know in the run up to this particular budget and one of the key reasons is of course there's an expectation of a general election not long afterwards maybe November maybe early in 2025 so the feeling is that they are going to loosen the parse strings but there's so much competition for those loosened parse strings I agree on a simple look what I would be advocating for it is that provisioned food vision would take place 52 weeks a year and also we need to hone in on the fact that smaller class sizes were still far ahead of our European counterparts but you guys say that ratios from pupil to teacher we need to reduce that to give our children the best opportunity going forward and I said I'm very blessed I've a fantastic staff in the school of men with some great kids as well like that but we're overcrowded in some of our classrooms which is listen it's a positive but we need to have smaller class sizes we need to get it down we're at 1 to 19 currently in TESPAM 1 we need to bring that by 2 at a minimum we need to get down to 1 to 17 and again that's down to every parent that's listening this morning we're coming up to general election we need to lobby all our local TDs everyone our local mayor we need to lobby everyone to insist and reduce class sizes and again for food provision take place for 52 weeks of the year that's that would be my main emphasis and I just go back to point you were making earlier so when we hear the term squeezed middle people may not realize that the squeezed middle can mean food poverty and that you shouldn't make assumptions as to which home is under that sort of pressure I think that there's a new food poverty company you've just hit in the stat squeeze middle you could have boat working parents maybe two people and maybe low incomes they're not entitled to maybe social welfare payments or any fizz trend like that as well and they're really generally struggled to put food in the table and come up to appear it's a Christmas where I suppose expenses are a greater quickly as well as was August and July when you're trying to get school uniforms you're trying to get necessities for the kids getting back to school they are finding very difficult to put meals in the table and they're not trying to be I suppose I was a scaremonger like that but that is the general the gist of what's happened at the moment and it's people like that need to be heavily supported people are accessing food banks that have never accessed food banks before and I think even people that would have considered a stigma going to food they're using as a last part to call and I'd never see a stigma I suppose I'm under I'm out of the line of time working in disadvantaged areas but I'd never see the stigma as looking for help it's the people that don't look for help are the ones that soften the long one and there is there's lots of sports out there's food banks running throughout the city is to avail of them don't put yourself under too much pressure don't be afraid to ask for help and I said if you don't know where to go I'd always say the local point of contact in schools is really important you have HCLs that do a lot of signposting I can get you into a variety of services principles will meet you and they'll discuss offer to you as well but I think that squeeze middle is generally happened it's a it's a new type of food poverty but something we need to be reactive to all right well listen thank you very much for making that case so well and you certainly know what you're talking about when it comes to it oh oh no burn whose principal at St Mary's National School in Limerick and well you won't be surprised I suppose that you're hearing chat about the budget on limerick today because it's only a few weeks away now it will happen on the first of October and after that well who knows as you've been hearing the t-shirt Simon Harris say repeat yet he's in Ukraine actually today I think meeting the Ukrainian president I see that there won't be an election the government will run its full term which would take it up to March of next year but a lot of people believe including some within the government that actually will be looking at an election in mid November and we've had a few elections already especially in limerick this year haven't we news next your views your news your limerick today with joannette on live 95