The Mykolaiv budget has only enough funds to cover meals in nurseries for a few weeks — the city needs a further ₴109 million

Children sitting at a table during a meal. Illustrative photo: Znaimo

Mykolaiv’s budget is short of almost 150 million hryvnias to provide meals for children in schools, nurseries and vocational colleges until the end of 2026. The city council’s education department says that funds for meals in nurseries may only last until 20 June.

This was reported by the head of the city council’s education department, Hanna Lychko, during a session on 28 May, according to NikVesti.

According to her, the city’s initial requirement for organising meals in 2026 stood at over 324 million hryvnias.

«The requirement for 2026, as of 1 January 2026, stood at 324 million 959 thousand 332 hryvnias. We were allocated a maximum of 271 million 689 thousand hryvnias. However, these allocated funds were insufficient to meet our needs by the end of the year,» said Hanna Lychko.

She explained that the bulk of the funding is directed specifically towards nurseries, as schools receive some of their funding from the state budget.

«Our general secondary education institutions receive funding, in part, from the state budget. To date, 70% of the funding for meals for Years 1–4 comes from the state budget, and 30% from the local budget. Whereas pre-school institutions are funded entirely from the local budget,» she explained.

According to Hanna Lychko, the city has now exhausted its funding limits for meals in kindergartens.

«As of today, we have concluded the academic year with a fully organised meal provision process. However, the limits for organising meals in pre-school institutions have been exhausted,» said the official.

The education department warns that without additional funding, the funds will only last for a few weeks.

«We now face the risk that the funds we have for pre-school institutions may only last until 20 June,» said Hanna Lychko.

In total, according to the Education Department’s estimates, the city will need a further 150 million hryvnias by the end of the year: over 109 million hryvnias 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 same time, the city council acknowledges that such funds are not available in the budget. Consequently, the city has prepared an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers requesting an additional state subsidy.

«Analysis shows that the city budget does not have such a large sum of funds, so we decided to draft an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding the provision of an additional subsidy from the state budget,» said Hanna Lychko.

She also noted that following the reopening of nurseries in the city, the number of children from disadvantaged groups entitled to free meals has risen significantly.

«When we were gradually reopening pre-school education facilities, the percentage of children from disadvantaged groups receiving free meals was 40%. Today, we have 71% of children from disadvantaged groups,» added the official.

Following the discussion, the councillors supported the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers.

It is worth noting that in Mykolaiv, the number of first-year pupils has fallen by 45% compared to pre-war years. The Mykolaiv Department of Education expects 2,500 first-year pupils as of 1 September.