Canteens must be for all pupils

MAIRIES are to be banned from making children of unemployed parents eat at home.

MPs have passed a law obliging mairies which offer school meals in primary schools to make them available to all children, without discrimination.

This follows anger from parents in some areas where mairies have in recent years put in place rules stating that if one or more parent does not work, including due to being unemployed or suffering a long-term health condition, their children should eat at home.

The mairies consider that these families have enough free time to feed their children themselves. However parents say it is stigmatising for the children, causes them to miss out on learning useful social skills and can also be disruptive to parents who are looking for work or trying to set up businesses.

The law says that “the right to use the canteen, where the service exists, is a right for all pupils”.

This ‘canteen for all’ law, put forward by the left-wing Parti Radical de Gauche, comes on top of an administrative court decision in favour of one parent from the Yvelines who took his mairie to court.