Mykolaiv announces ₴135.5 million tender to provide school meals

School meals for children, archive photo NikVesti

In Mykolaiv, a tender has been announced for the provision of school meals for pupils at 55 schools across the city, with an estimated cost of 135.5 million hryvnias.

This is according to data from the ProZorro public procurement system.

The contracting authority is the Education Department of Mykolaiv City Council. The contractor is to organise school meals from 1 September to 31 December 2026.

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The tender covers meals for pupils in Years 1–11 attending the first and second shifts. Three meals a day are also being procured separately for pupils at the Mykolaiv Special School for Children with Visual Impairments.

In total, the procurement covers over 1.6 million «child-days» of meals.

Anatolii Petrov, Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv, reminded NikVesti in a comment that a separate procurement for meals in nurseries had recently taken place. According to him, the city receives a state subsidy for food for schools, whilst the service of organising meals must be partially co-funded from the city budget.

«For schools, the state provides a subsidy for food for pupils. But we have to top up the funding for the service,» said Anatolii Petrov.

He noted that approximately 67 per cent of the funding comes from state funds, whilst around 33 per cent comes from the city budget.

At the same time, Anatolii Petrov assured that the necessary funding for school meals is available.

«The subsidy is in place. In principle, I don’t think there will be any problems,» said the deputy mayor.

Meals in nurseries, he said, are fully funded from the city budget.

Earlier in June, the Education Department of the Mykolaiv City Council announced a tender for the provision of meals in 44 of the city’s nurseries. The estimated cost of the procurement was 69.1 million hryvnias, and the services were scheduled to be provided until the end of October.

At the time, the city council reported that there were insufficient funds to provide meals for the children until the end of the year. According to Deputy Mayor Vitalii Lukov, the money for the nurseries was found by making savings from the funds earmarked for school meals.

At the same time, the city council was counting on additional state funding to ensure meals for children until the end of the year. According to estimates by the Department of Education, the city will need a further nearly 150 million hryvnias by the end of the year: over 109 million hryvnias for nurseries, over 33 million hryvnias to co-fund school meals, and a further 7 million hryvnias for special schools and vocational education institutions.