To ask the Minister of Education to detail any plans his Department has to (i) increase vegetarian and vegan meal options in schools; and (ii) incorporate more local, sustainable produce into school meals.

The Education Authority (EA) is responsible for the operational delivery of school meals and this includes the provision of menu options to meet the relevant nutritional standards for school meals. It has confirmed that it has no current plans to increase vegetarian and vegan options in its school meal menus.

Primary schools are able to opt for either a one or two choice menu for school lunches. If one of these choices were to be replaced by a vegetarian/vegan option, the EA would be unable to meet the required nutritional standards. To meet the needs of those children and young people who wish to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, this can be requested through the Special Diets procedure which can be obtained from the school they attend.

All post-primary school canteens operate a cafeteria style where a range of vegetarian and vegan food options are made available at hot food serveries, sandwich bars and salad counters on a daily basis.

The EA is committed to procuring local, sustainable produce where there is sufficient capability and capacity in the market to meet EA’s requirements. Of the EA’s current food suppliers, 90% are based in Northern Ireland. The EA encourages its larger suppliers to supply local products were possible.

The EA conducts pre-market engagement activities prior to every food tender to assess the market’s capability and capacity to meet the EA’s requirements and to identify interested suppliers. The findings from these pre-market engagement activities inform each specific procurement strategy. All pre-market engagement activities are publicised on eTendersNI and all local suppliers are encouraged to participate and engage with EA prior to any tender process commencing.

EA Catering Service and EA Commercial Procurement Service are also actively working with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs as part of its Food Strategy Framework which includes an activity to explore the feasibility of increasing public sector procurement of local food.