Free School Dinners

One of my biggest problems with kids is that they need to eat.  Sometimes even up to twice a week!  If it wasn't for those pesky Social Workers... (A topic that we will address at a later point)  Seriously thought, Kids needs to eat when they are in school in order to maintain their concentration and their ability. When kids parents cannot afford to pay for school dinners then they get them free.  This is a great service and something that we should applaud our local councils on.

They are also a good indications of deprivation in an area as well. As school dinners are directly linked to the income of the parents, the more kids having school dinners free, the more likely an area is to have a low income. So, how many school dinners are being provided in the 2014/15 academic year?  Only one way to find out!  So I sent an FoI request to all local authorities and asked them the same question:

1)    How many free school dinners you have provided to children 16 and under in the academic year 2014 to 2015

2)    How much money was spent in providing free school dinners to children aged 16 and under in the academic year 2014 to 2015.

The reason for the second question is because it shows how much the council has to spend on this service. The thing is ALL Welsh government get their funding from the Welsh Government and then distribute it as they deem appropriate (As explained here).  So how many school dinners were given?  Here's the results:

Name	Amount	Costs
Blaenau	277,428	Unable 
Bridgend	472,716
Caerphilly	651,107	£1,281,330.8
Cardiff
Carmarthenshire	2,834,013	2.63
Ceredigion	99,310	2.5
Conway	394,051	£477,940.00
Denbighshire	371,662	£727,089.85
Flintshire	590,686
Gwynedd	277,482	£933,717
Anglesey	199,919	£555,866.5
Merthyr Tydfil	260,859	£283,449
Monmouth	144,667	£295,318
Neath Port Talbot	380,142	unable
Newport	641,133	£1,357,620
Pembroke	357,150
Powys	248,584	£562,860.05
RCT	1,198,989	£2,372,503
Swansea	2990	£1,193,010
Torfaen	264,447	£511,163
Vale Of Glamorgan	331,289	£705,151.00
Wrexham

With the amount, I think that there may have been a little bit of an error as some of the council just give me how much it cost to get a dinner (So by logical deduction all you have to do it times the cost by the amount).  

The thing that I truely amazing is how many Carmarthenshire give. Well more than anyone else. The costs are amazing as well.  Two different council spending over a million pounds on the dinner scheme.  Who would have thought that this cost so much!  It also shows the discrepancy on how much each council is spending on free dinners.  How can the Vale of Glamorgan spend so much on so few dinners.

Amazing that you think that our local council spend so much on a service that a lot of us take for granted.