GOING to school hungry does more than damage your health - it also has a dire effect on your learning abilities and can severely restrict your educational opportunities. It was in recognition of these facts that a school meals scheme was established in 1914. The scheme was - and largely remains - an urban one, designed to help the children living on inadequate diets who were deemed unable to take full advantage of the education provided for them.

In 1930 a school meals scheme was introduced for all children attending national schools in designated areas of the Gaeltacht. Meanwhile in 1975, the urban school meals scheme was extended to schools in Dublin Co Council areas, where at least half the pupils lived either within the Dublin Corporation boundaries or in Dublin Corporation housing.

Although the service is called the school meals scheme, the reality is that it is a school snacks scheme and is intended only to restore children's energy at a time when it may have run low. With a few exceptions, the most that is offered is a carton of milk and a bun or sandwich.

Considering the changes which have taken place and the advances which have been made in Ireland over the past 80 or so years, it's fair to say that in that time the school meals scheme has hardly changed at all. Talking to some of the officials who administer the service in nine borough councils, 19 urban district councils and five town commissionerships, it's clear that the scheme is, by and large, here only because it's here.

"We run the scheme because we've always done so," says one official. "No one takes much notice of it, but I can guarantee that if we decided to stop it, there would be a huge outcry."

Jim Walsh, a research officer with the Combat Poverty Agency, says: "It's a totally anomalous and outdated scheme. There's no real logic to it being funded by the Department of Social Welfare and the local authorities - it should be financed by the Department of Education and the health boards."

The school meal system must be reformed, he believes. "The scheme should be linked to a nutritional education and health awareness programme for low income parents. There is an inadequacy of income issue, but many low income people could do better. Like the Breaking the Cycle educational initiative, school meals should be focused on the most disadvantaged in society."

THERE is no national plan for the school meals service. What's on offer and how the scheme operates varies from local authority to local authority. However, in all cases local authorities recoup half the costs of the scheme from the Department of Social Welfare.

In 1995 the Department spent almost £750,000 on the urban school meals scheme. Many people believe that since the scheme is intended to enhance the educational opportunities of children it should be funded by the Department of Education.

In Dublin alone, almost 200 national schools are in the school meals scheme. Until the beginning of this year, 39 schools outside the area - 27 in south Dublin (Tallaght and Clondalkin), 10 in Fingal (Blanchardstown) and two in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown also participated in the Dublin Corporation scheme. However, as a result of the reorganisation in local government in the greater Dublin area, the new county councils (South Dublin Fingal and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown) assumed responsibility for the school meals schemes in their areas on January 1st this year.

The Dublin Corporation scheme provides for a third of a pint of milk each day and, depending on the day, either a corned beef or cheese sandwich made with wholemeal bread, a currant bun or a chocolate chip muffin. The latter, which was introduced only recently, has proved a winner and is far more popular than the sandwiches or buns.

Up to 36,000 children take the milk every day. A similar number take the muffin but only 20,000 take the sandwiches and currant buns, says Paddy McGrath, administrative officer with Dublin Corporation's community and environment department. Twenty Early Start schools have recently joined the scheme.

Meanwhile Dublin Corporation supplies 115 kickles - kosher biscuits - and milk each day to Stratford College, Rathgar, which serves the Jewish community. It also contributes towards the hot meals provided in 20 special schools in the city.

The Corporation also funds a pilot hot soup scheme which operates in four inner city schools between October and April. The soups which include oxtail, chicken, vegetable and tomato are extremely popular, according to Pat Sheehan, vice principal of James's Street CBS Primary School. "The soup is made on the premises and delivered directly to the classrooms," he says. "Nutritionally it's tremendous. The boys love it. We give it to them first thing in the morning and it creates a wonderful sense of community in the school." Attendance rates have improved since the school began offering the soup.

IN order for a national school to avail of the Dublin Corporation scheme, half of its pupils must live in Corporation houses, according to McGrath. It is the school principal who applies for admission to the scheme. Once a school gains admission it is never deselected - even when areas have become `gentrified' over the years or when corporation estates become - surrounded by private housing. As a result there are a number of Dublin schools in what are now regarded as middle class areas where the free meals scheme operates.

Many well off parents sending their children to national schools in Ranelagh, Rathgar and Terenure, for example, express surprise when they discover that their children are eligible for free milk and buns or sandwiches while their friends' children in neighbouring schools have to pay.

However, school principals prefer that the scheme remains inclusive and would be reluctant to draw distinctions between children who really need to avail of the scheme and those who don't.

"There's nothing worse than seeing a child coming to school hungry," says Tadgh O'Donoghue, principal of Archbishop Ryan National School, Balgaddy, Clondalkin, Co Dublin. "There is a real need for the scheme. In every school you get a small percentage of families who are quite in need."

Contracts for the supply of milk and food are awarded annually by Dublin Corporation. Currently Avonmore is supplying the milk and Pre Plate, an offshoot of Campbell Catering which owns Bewleys, is supplying the sandwiches, buns and muffins.

In Cork, however, the borough council gives money directly to the individual schools. A total of £95,000 is spent on the scheme in 33 schools.

Gorey Town Commissioners supply free milk to 700 children in the town's three national schools.

IN Limerick the scheme is targeted at the needy, according to a spokesperson for the borough council. The 23 schools in the scheme distribute application forms to parents who have to submit information on their incomes. Only children whose parents are in receipt of unemployment or social welfare benefits are eligible to receive the free currant bun and milk, according to Tony O'Gorman, principal of Corpus Christi National School, Limerick. Many parents object to the fact that the scheme is open to some children and not to others.

Another problem with the Limerick scheme, which costs a total of £73,500, is that parents' applications are processed only in October. This means that new pupils are unable to avail of the scheme until after that time and anyone starting school after the beginning of October doesn't get it at all, he says.

Many children dislike the bun, particularly the currants which they take out and discard. "We have had complaints that the buns have been delivered to the doorsteps of schools and they have completely disintegrated before the children get them," says Maggie Phayer, welfare co ordinator of the Paul Partnership in Limerick. "It's a complete mismanagement of public money.