{"id":168444,"date":"2025-01-21T13:32:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T04:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=168444&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2025-01-21T13:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T04:32:53","slug":"fukuoka-city-launch-free-school-lunch-program","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/fukuoka-city-launch-free-school-lunch-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka City to Launch Free School Lunch Program in FY2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fukuoka City will make school lunches free for elementary, junior high, and special needs students in fiscal year 2025, benefiting approximately 120,000 children at an annual cost of \u00a55.8 billion. The program, aimed at supporting families amid rising costs, is expected to start early in the fiscal year following system upgrades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The city\u2019s record \u00a51.13 trillion FY2025 budget also includes air conditioning for school gyms, outsourced swimming lessons to reduce teacher workloads, expanded infant health checkups, academic research on Fukuoka Castle, and plans for a new annex to the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City tax revenue is projected to surpass \u00a5400 billion for the first time, driven by population and economic growth. <\/span><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.nhk.or.jp\/fukuoka-news\/20250120\/5010026838.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NHK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-school-lunch_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1400%2C1122&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Fukuoka City to Launch Free School Lunch Program in FY2025\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1122\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-168448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-school-lunch_2025_cl.jpg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-school-lunch_2025_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C240&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-school-lunch_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C821&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-school-lunch_2025_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C615&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>Photo from Fukuoka City school lunch page<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka City will make school lunches free for elementary, junior high, and special needs students in fiscal year 2025, benefiting approximately&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29305,"featured_media":168451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-168444","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-city","news-category-society","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/168444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}