Half-price restaurant meals to help Czech households facing hardship

Restaurant meals at least 50 percent cheaper than their usual price are available to people facing financial hardship through a new Czech pilot that launched Nov. 1.

The Healthy Meal initiative (Zdravé jídlo in Czech) aims to support families with children, single parents, seniors and others in difficult circumstances. Nonprofit organizations will select participants and help them access restaurant offers through an online voucher system.

Viktor Vodička of the Czech Consumer Association, which coordinates the Czech branch of the project, presented the initiative Monday. Following the pilot, organizers plan to begin gradually expanding it nationwide in May 2027.

The project is already running in six EU countries: Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, and Romania. Interested parties need to enter the program through a nonprofit organization rather than registering themselves.

Once enrolled, they will be able to choose from available restaurant offers and receive a voucher carrying a unique code. They can then redeem it at the selected restaurant at the specified time.

People without a smartphone or computer will also be able to participate: a nonprofit can reserve the voucher on their behalf.

According to Vodička, the project has no fixed eligibility criteria. Participating nonprofits will use their experience working with clients to identify people who could benefit.

The initiative’s official restaurant directory already lists three Prague businesses participating in the pilot project: Neklid, U Vodárny and Na Břežance. Individual meal offers and reservation times will be handled through the voucher system.

Fast-food restaurants cannot join the Czech scheme. The aim is to make balanced meals more accessible while allowing participants to dine in restaurants they might otherwise be unable to afford.

The project responds to rising living costs that have pushed households to economize on food quality and cut back on eating out, Vodička said.

Alongside financial assistance, organizers see restaurant visits as an opportunity for social inclusion. The European coordinator, SAFE—Safe Food Advocacy Europe, describes reduced social contact as another consequence of households losing the ability to afford meals out.

Its Healthy Meal program combines access to affordable food with efforts to reduce food waste and connect restaurants with people in vulnerable circumstances. Voucher distribution is also being piloted in Greece and Belgium.

Restaurants will not receive compensation for the discounts they provide, according to Vodička. Instead, participating businesses agree to sell selected meals at a lower margin, supporting their local communities while making use of their kitchen capacity and prepared food.

The initiative is part of Food4Inclusion, a European project co-financed through the European Social Fund Plus. Vodička said the funding received for the Czech project would cover development and administration of the website rather than subsidizing individual meals.

For prospective participants, the route into the program will therefore be through a participating nonprofit, with available meals determined by the restaurants’ offers.