Government allocates nearly UAH 780 million for free school meals

The Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a resolution that will ensure full, high-quality, and free meals for pupils in primary, basic, and upper secondary schools starting from September 2025.

Under the decision, UAH 779.8 million will be allocated from the state budget to local budgets (via a special fund). These funds will be used to provide free meals for primary school pupils nationwide and to organise meals for pupils in grades 5–11 in general secondary education institutions in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions.

The funding will come from the remaining balances of the education subvention accumulated in local budget accounts at the end of 2024, which were transferred to the special fund of the state budget for the Ministry of Education and Science.

Thanks to this resolution, pupils will continue to receive free meals at schools, contributing to the creation of proper and safe learning conditions.