The government has allocated ₴187.5 million in grants for school meals in the Mykolaiv region

Pupils at a school in the Mykolaiv region, archive photo from NikVesti

The government has allocated 187.5 million hryvnias in subsidies for school meals for pupils in the Mykolaiv region between September and November 2026.

The government adopted the relevant decision on 1 July, according to NikVesti.

In total, 7.45 billion hryvnias were distributed among the regions and Kyiv.

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The Mykolaiv region received a smaller subsidy than the Odesa region (459.6 million hryvnias), but almost twice as much as the Zaporizhzhia region (83.6 million hryvnias). The government allocated 2.4 million hryvnias to the Kherson region.

The funds will be used to provide one-off meals for pupils at state schools. They will cover meals for children attending school in person, under a blended learning model, or under educational supervision.

The document also sets out the estimated cost of meals. For primary school pupils, this is 50 hryvnias per portion; for lower and upper secondary school pupils, 60 hryvnias. At the same time, for eight regions — including the Mykolaiv region, where a separate support programme from the UN World Food Programme remains in place — the estimated cost of meals for primary school pupils is 35 hryvnias.

Allocation of the school meals grant by region, government decision

Prior to this, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine had refused Mykolaiv’s request for 150 million hryvnias to organise school meals in educational institutions. The ministry explained that these expenses for nurseries and vocational education institutions should be funded from the local authority budget, and also highlighted the growth in the city’s budget revenue.

It should be recalled that at the session of the Mykolaiv City Council on 28 May, it was reported that by the end of 2026, the city would be short of nearly 150 million hryvnias for providing meals to children in educational institutions. Of this amount, over 109 million hryvnias are required for nurseries, over 33 million hryvnias for co-funding school meals, and a further 7 million hryvnias for special schools and vocational education institutions.

At the time, city councillors appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada, requesting that additional funding be allocated to Mykolaiv from the state budget.

Subsequently, the executive committee of the Mykolaiv City Council reallocated 864,500 hryvnias for meals in nurseries. City Hall noted that these funds would only last until the end of summer, after which the city council would seek additional funding.

There is a shortfall in Mykolaiv’s budget. What is known?

As a reminder, six months ago the Mykolaiv City Council appealed to the government and the Verkhovna Rada requesting an additional grant for the city from the state budget. According to the city authorities’ calculations, the city’s own budget revenue for 2026 covers only 82.5 per cent of actual needs, whilst the funding shortfall exceeds 1.14 billion hryvnias.

Back at the start of the year, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reported that the Ministry of Finance would analyse Mykolaiv’s financial situation to assess the city’s need for additional funding. At the same time, he emphasised that the final decision depends not only on the Ministry of Finance’s calculations but also on the political will of parliament.

According to the mayor, the city has not yet received an official response to its request. During Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko’s most recent visit to Mykolaiv, he raised this issue once again. According to Oleksandr Sienkevych, the request was forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, which is continuing to analyse the city’s budget.

Due to the lack of additional funding, the city is already preparing to reallocate its own funds. In particular, this concerns providing free meals for children in schools and nurseries.

«We will have to see where we can free up and reallocate funds for children’s meals. But this is a critical situation. No matter how much we reallocate, there won’t be any more money as a result. By the end of the year, there will be nothing left,» concluded Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Earlier, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that Mykolaiv’s budget for 2026 is a «survival budget» and does not cover all the community’s needs. According to him, the city lacks the funds to implement the state-initiated pay rise for teachers, to pay for utilities, to repair roads and to cover other expenses.