The Scottish Government aren’t doing enough to ensure every pupil entitled to a free school meal takes it up. That’s according to Brian Whittle MSP, who challenged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the issue in Holyrood.
The criticism came after figures compiled by the Scottish poverty and inequality research unit at Glasgow Caledonian University showed that around a quarter of primary school children registered for free meals don’t have one on a typical day, with an even higher proportion of pupils in secondary schools missing out.
During First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Tory Wellbeing & Sport spokesperson Brian challenged the First Minister to take a more joined up approach to delivering free school meals, highlighting the important role school meals can play in tackling food poverty. The First Minister disappointed Brian Whittle with a response that highlighted the Scottish Government’s commitment to universal free school meal provision for pupils up to Primary 3 and didn’t acknowledge the issues he’d highlighted around the numbers of pupils actually eating the meals.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“The big issue here, which the First Minister chose to ignore, is that the number of many people eligible for free school meals doesn’t matter, if they aren’t taking up the offer. Unless pupils are actually sitting down at meal times to eat a free, healthy and nutritious meal then they get no benefit from the provision.
Getting pupils to eat a good quality hot meal every day at school can make a big difference to their performance inside the classroom and their health more generally. We need to do more to understand why there are so many children who, when offered a free school meal, are choosing not to take it, and find ways to encourage them to do so.
Despite her poor answer in the Chamber, I hope Nicola Sturgeon will think seriously about whether this is something she is really comfortable brushing off so lightly.”
