All primary school students in Vinnytsia will receive free meals after the holidays.

All primary school students of the Vinnytsia city territorial community will be able to eat for free after the holidays. This concerns 17.2 thousand children. There are currently no delays in the payment of the provision of meals for primary school students from the state budget and local budgets. The relevant changes were made to the community budget at the regular session of the city council.

The Cabinet of Ministers adopted resolution No. 1145 regarding the provision of a subsidy from the state budget to local budgets for the provision of meals for primary school students. According to the resolution, 70% of the costs of meals are covered by the state subsidy, and the remaining 30% must be co-financed from the local budget. Therefore, the relevant changes were made to the community budget so that primary school students could eat for free.

The share of co-financing from the local budget is 13.7 million hryvnias, and the size of the subsidy from the state budget is 32.7 million hryvnias. Therefore, the issue of additional allocation of funds for the meals of students in the amount of 10.3 million UAH was considered at the session. On October 4, the relevant changes were approved, and from October 28, primary school students will be able to eat at the expense of the state and local budgets.

According to the director of the education department, Oksana Yatsenko, this state initiative will be in effect until the end of the year. We remind you that in Vinnytsia, almost 13.5 thousand children from privileged categories, who are brought up in kindergartens and study in schools, already eat for free. Other students pay for their meals independently, choosing the cost of meals from the offered menu options ranging from 40 to 55 hryvnias.

List of privileged categories:

• orphans;
• children deprived of parental care;
• children with special educational needs studying in special and inclusive classes;
• children from families that receive assistance in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On State Social Assistance to Low-Income Families";
• children from internally displaced persons;
• children affected by war actions and armed conflicts;
• children from persons defined in Article 10 and 101 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Status of War Veterans, Guarantees of Their Social Protection";
• children from families where one of the parents is a participant in hostilities or a war invalid and defended the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine.