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    Start organising Meals at School

    If your school chooses the ‘Meals at School’ option, you will receive more information from the Youth Education Fund after admission to the School Meals Programme. This email provides all the information you need to start organising food and drink at school. Your login details for the application system where you request your monthly budget, a guide, claim forms and other useful tips are included below.

    Useful documents [all in Dutch]

    • Guide on how to apply for your budget and submit claim forms
    • Ten key points for making declarations
    • Form for volunteer reimbursement 2024

    In the animation opposite, we explain how organising meals at school works in just one minute.

    Contact persons for schools

    The Youth Education Fund supports the participating schools by appointing school contact persons. They are your permanent point of contact and can advise you on the types of food that are most appropriate for your school. After your school has been accepted into the programme, your personal school contact person at the Youth Education Fund will call you within a week to help get you started with the school meals. You can ask all your questions during this call.

    In the video opposite, Sherona, an internal supervisor and teacher at an elementary school in The Hague, talks about how they approached organising meals at her school

    Videos for ‘Request a budget’ and ‘Claim your expenses’.

    Organising Meals at School

    Applying for and claiming your budget every month

    Your school submits a monthly budget request. In that request, you specify how you want to offer the food to the pupils. You can budget based on an amount of up to €9 per pupil per week (including VAT) each month. That is €1.80 per day.
    After approval of your budget request, you can get started. To get started organising Meals at School, you can request funds to cover ‘one-time costs’ – for a refrigerator, pantry or kitchen appliances, for example.
    Your school can claim the expenses it incurs once a month. This claim is verified by the Youth Education Fund. No payment will be made until all the receipts and invoices have been properly submitted and approved. The total amount you claim should never exceed the amount approved for the monthly budget request.

    Organising meals in a way that suits your school

    As a school, you are at liberty to decide which way of offering food best suits your pupils and your facilities/staffing. For example, you can set up a partnership with local or national suppliers who deliver sandwiches, snacks or fruit. You can also use volunteers or parents/caregivers to help with the organisational aspects and implementation. Alternatively, you can provide individual meal packs, create self-service points for fruit or set up a pantry from which the pupils can take food. You can also combine a number of options.
    You will find clear examples in the ‘Getting started’ section. Your personal contact person at the Youth Education Fund will be happy to help you make your decision.
    Getting Started

    Request a budget and claim your expenses

    Does your school use the ‘Meals at school’ option? The guide (see the link on top of this page under ‘Documents’) and the associated videos explain each step of the process for applying for your budget and claiming expenses. Please read the guide carefully; that will help you organise the meals effectively and speed up financial settlement.

    The five basic rules

    1. You apply to us for your budget every month. You do this before the start of the month. You can only retrospectively claim the items stated in the budget request.
    2. You submit a single budget request per month. A second request will be rejected unless it is a request for one-time costs.
    3. Always request the maximum budget. The expense claim you submit afterwards may always be lower, but may never exceed the budget. Keep this in mind when claiming to compensate one-time costs.
    4. Your school advances the money to cover expenses first. You then submit a single claim form immediately after the end of the month.The Youth Education Fund only pays out to the school or school foundation.
    5. Make sure that receipts/invoices always show a date that corresponds to the period for which the request was submitted. Always use the required claim forms.

    Contact

    Do you have any questions?

    Check out the complete list of questions and answers on our FAQs page. The Youth Education Fund also supports schools by appointing contact persons. They are permanent points of contact who will be happy to advise you on the types of food that best suit your school and help you get started.

    Frequently Asked Questions
    Contact information