Funding for school canteens expanded for modernization - which ones can receive it
Kyiv • UNN
Communities will receive UAH 46.5 million for the renovation of 19 food preparation units with high readiness. Starting in September, all students in the country are planned to be provided with hot meals.
The government has allocated additional millions to complete the modernization of school canteens, which began in 2025, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and the Ministry of Education and Science announced on Thursday, UNN reports.
Details
"The government has distributed an additional UAH 46.5 million in subventions to communities to complete the modernization of school canteens. Funding will be provided to 19 facilities that were started in 2025 and already have a high level of readiness - at least 60%," Svyrydenko said on social media.
As noted by the Ministry of Education and Science, this will allow communities to complete projects without losing investments and open modern canteens for students. The additional funding was explained by the fact that "some projects could not be completed within the specified deadlines."
How many school canteens have already been renovated
In total, according to Svyrydenko, about 20% of food units have already been modernized.
"In total, approximately 20% of food units have already been modernized: 188 - at the expense of state subventions (155 completed, 33 are completing implementation), another 1,500 canteens have been updated thanks to funding from local budgets and support from international partners," the Ministry of Education and Science reported.
School meals
According to the Prime Minister, students in grades 1-11 in frontline communities and grades 1-4 in other regions already receive school meals.
"In the 2024-2025 academic year, 1.5 million students received it, in 2025-2026 - already 2 million children," said the head of the Ministry of Education and Science, Oksen Lisovyi.
"Our goal is to provide hot lunches to all schoolchildren across the country from September 1 this year," Svyrydenko said.
"For 2026, the state budget provides UAH 14.4 billion for this, which will allow providing meals to all students in grades 1-11 at the expense of the state budget," said Minister of Education and Science Lisovyi.
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