The Generalitat has increased the price of school meals in public centers by 5% compared to the previous year, surpassing the 7 euro barrier. Thus, the maximum price for the provision of the dining room service will go from 6.91 euros per menu per student for the current course to 7.25 euros for permanent students. In the case of sporadic diners, it goes from 7.60 to a maximum of 7.98 euros in the 2024-2025 academic year.
This is the fifth consecutive year in which prices that have been frozen for more than ten years have risen. These prices are once again in the high range of the autonomous communities, according to a recent study by the NGO Educo that denounced the increase in dining room prices and the lack of aid for vulnerable families.
Sources from the Department of Education explain that if the price had not been increased, “it would have automatically led to a loss of quality of service, due to economic infeasibility.” On the one hand, food prices have increased and, on the other, the agreement for dining room monitors has increased.
On the other hand, Educació explains that there is individual public aid for families whose income is below the poverty line, which is updated each year. This item remains open throughout the course.
The resolution of the Department of Education has been published this morning in the Official Journal of the Generalitat of Catalonia (DOGC).
It should be noted that the price of 7.25 euros and 7.98 euros per student per day is for those centers that have a midday slot with a maximum duration of two and a half hours in total.
In those centers that have a midday slot with a maximum duration of two hours, the price is 6.87 euros for permanent students and that for sporadic students “may not exceed” 7.56 euros per student per day.
The maximum price for the provision of the school service includes, in addition to food, the attention of the educational staff to the students during the time of provision of the service and the periods before and after, from the end of morning classes until the beginning of classes. pm.
The Department of Education considers sporadic one that is used less than three days a week – in the case of ESO, two -, as long as the diner is not a beneficiary of dining aid.
The Department of Education explains that it does not want to contribute to the precariousness of the working conditions of the monitors (due to an increase in the ratio of students per monitor, or unqualified personnel having been hired). “The Administration cannot favor the precariousness of a labor sector as weak as that of the monitors, which has achieved a salary increase by updating its labor agreement of 3.5% for this year 2024,” they point out.
Likewise, from a food point of view, in a context of international inflation, we avoid resorting to cheaper and poorer quality products.
The price increase is due, according to Educació, to the need to maintain quality in a context of “generalized increase in prices motivated by global economic and political circumstances.” The aim is to “ensure the nutritional quality of the midday meal, with organic, local foods, with flexibility for the different types of menus that families require.”