The Provincial Director of Education in Melilla, Elena Fernández Treviño, has announced that the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFpyD) has begun the bidding process for the implementation of new school dining services in three educational centers in the city: the CEIP Reina Sofía, the CEIP León Solá and, for the first time, the CEIP Encarna León.

As explained by Fernández Treviño, the Ministry of Education has opened this process with the objective that dining services begin at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year and are maintained until the month of June. In addition, he has highlighted a noteworthy novelty: “All the students of the Reina Sofía School will obtain the dining scholarship, that is, they will obtain the scholarship directly due to the mere fact of belonging to the School”.

Thus, as he explained, 100% of the students who request it from ‘Reina Sofía’ will opt for the free dining service. “They just have to apply for it and it’s going to be granted,” he said.

Extend the dining room to all centers

The Provincial Director has reiterated that one of the main objectives of her team is to progressively extend this service to all public schools in Melilla.

“From next year, the ‘Encarna León’, the ‘León Solá’, the ‘Reina Sofía’, next to the ‘Mediterranean’, ‘Hippodrome’, which also has a service that ‘Catholic Monarchs’ have to transfer to children and that they can also enjoy this service, in addition to those already offered by the concerted centers ‘Enrique Soler’ and ‘La Salle’, that is to study the power to offer dining service to each and every school we have in Melilla,” he said.

Fernández Treviño has highlighted that school canteens have fulfilled a dual function: educational and social. “They have constituted one more service of the educational center for families and their students, and have responded to the current nutritional and health regulations, which has been recently updated through a new law on healthy eating,” he said.

In addition, it has highlighted the impact of these canteens on family reconciliation. “We have offered the possibility that, in addition to the scholarship students, children from non-scholarship families can also access the dining room by paying the same price from the menu,” he explained. In this way, it has helped to facilitate the daily organization of many families from Melilla.

Finally, the Provincial Director recalled that since today the deadline has been opened to apply for the dining scholarship, which will remain open for 15 working days. Applications can be made online through the electronic headquarters of the Ministry of Education (sede.educacion.gob.es), and the option of presenting the documentation in person in the electronic register, in the post offices, in the assistance offices of the Provincial Directorate and the other authorized points has also been enabled.

Finally, it has added value that this dining service can be further expanded and that “the students of our city of Melilla can feel welcomed by this dining service that many schools in our city already have”.