Council end scheme providing free fruit to primary children for mid-morning snack

The programme began in October 2021. Schools were informed the the scheme ended on 31 March with no mid-morning fruit available from the end of the Easter school holidays and parents of children eligible for free school meals asked to provide a snack in future.

Originally funded through a one-off investment from the council and Scottish Government COVID recovery funding, the change will affect 53,000 children in the city against the backdrop of soaring food prices and a cost of living crisis.

The healthy snack for kids was provided as part of the council’s overall COVID recovery plans in the wake of the pandemic. It was introduced alongside the Glasgow’s City Food plan and climate emergency and sustainability proposal to source local providers to supply produce for school menus.

At the time Councillor Chris Cunningham, City Convener of Education, Skills and Early Years said children and young people will reap the benefits from additional food being offered during the school day.

He said: “This programme is the ideal way to offer fresh fruit to all primary pupils and a hot and healthy option mid-morning to young people in our secondary schools during the Autumn and Winter months when we all need a bit extra to get us through the day’s work.

“I know that it will also be a great help to our families and potentially free up some money towards other household bills.”

GlasgowWorld was contacted by concerned parents who had received an update that the free fruit for snack times was no longer being provided to schools.

A council spokeswoman told us: “Our Primary Schools Healthy Snack Initiative was introduced as a pilot scheme in October 2021. It will end as scheduled on 31^st March. Unlimited fruit remains available to all students at lunch times.”

When asked to clarify whether a similar scheme would be introduced to fill the gap, they added: “Parents or carers wishing to provide children with snacks - fruit or otherwise - is a personal choice for them.

“That’s always been a matter of personal agency.”

We contacted a number of Glasgow elected representatives to ask them about the presonal choices parents currently face with March grocery inflation at 17.5% set to add £837 to average household’s annual bill.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly provided comment from an SNP spokesperson: “The nutrition of Glasgow’s young people remains at the forefront of the SNP administration’s agenda.

“The fresh fruit pilot was put in place as part of the Council’s overall Covid recovery plan, however uptake was inconsistent. We will continue to look at ways to forward this agenda including improving nutrition in schools, supporting the expansion of free school meals and our pioneering holiday food programme.”

Paul Sweeney MSP said: “When this initiative was first introduced it was heralded as being a great way to ensure children get the nutrition they need to get through the day at school and a way to help families who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis; both of which I wholeheartedly agree with. Now, due to budget cuts driven by austerity, this initiative has been scrapped and apparently children’s nutrition and family finances are entirely a matter of personal agency.

“The fact of the matter is that the cost-of-living crisis hasn’t gone anywhere. Thousands of families across Glasgow are struggling to pay their bills and, in many instances, won’t be able to afford fresh fruit for their kids to take to school. The idea that this is all a matter of choice and personal agency is a nonsense; if that was the case then Glasgow City Council would never have introduced the scheme in the first place and their justification is an insult to every parent and child in our city.

“It will have a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of thousands of kids, especially those from poorer backgrounds and it will also cost us more in the long run as educational attainment falls, as hunger in the classroom is one of the biggest barriers to effective learning. That is a travesty, it is a shameful indictment of the priorities of the council, and it shouldn’t be forgotten. We need a council that is focused on improving the life chances of our most vulnerable kids, not a council that purposefully makes things harder for them while insulting their intelligence in the process.”

Councillor Jill Brown said: “This is another example of the Scottish Government not focusing on the right priorities. They are happy to offer free bikes and membership of a sports club to win a vote but when it comes to feeding the children of the city with healthy fruit that is quietly forgotten about.

“When families are struggling with the cost of living and food prices are soaring it is more important than ever before that children know they can get food at school. Children should not be going hungry and this is another slap in the face for hard working families.”

Councillor Audrey Dempsey said: “As well as my position as an elected member, I manage a charity I founded 6 years ago which supports people in financial hardship and working poverty to meet their basic daily needs, so I deal with crisis cases daily and fully understand the various forms of poverty spreading in our city right now.

To be totally honest, I believe there is masses of work needing done around free school meals and mid-morning snacks. I feel the option of free meals should apply to all kids because a lot of the kids who are living in households where working poverty is an issue, do not qualify, so are going hungry all day.

“It has been scientifically proven that without nourishment and fuel, the performance of children in the classroom is poor. Some children already have issues attending school because maybe their being bullied because their clothing doesn’t have the same branded name as their classroom peers, or they don’t have a clean uniform because mum didn’t have enough electricity to run the machine cycle!

“As adults, I think we have to try to fully understand the impact the cost of living has on the kids. It does not miss them! I have evidenced how they can be burdened with it and how they feel when they see their parents struggle continuously to make ends meet. Their mental health, confidence and self-esteem suffers terribly.

“At times of crisis, we need to pull together as a city and support each other. If you are earning a wage that covers your lifestyle and bills, then the cost of your lifestyle and bills increase significantly, but your wage doesn’t, then it isn’t rocket science that this will lead to major struggles. We need to understand that and support people out of it, not punish them further by taking away the only security they have of their child getting food in any given day.

“I believe we need to make school meals free for all kids, keep the snacks in place and open that up for all kids, and we need to work on the menu and portion sizes of the school meals. It should absolutely be a priority, and if it doesn’t become a priority, then that says more about us as a council than anything else.

“Times are really hard for people right now and we need to hep them get back on their feet instead of pushing them further into deeper poverty and suffering.”

A spokesperson for the council’s education department contacted GlasgowWorld to say the council is committed to ensuring that no children go hungry at school and pointed to recent cross-party action on school meal debt.