Pupils in four Glasgow secondary schools will benefit from free school meal pilot
Hundreds of pupils from S1 to S3 in four Glasgow secondary schools will benefit from a free school meal pilot which will launch this August.
It comes after funding of £201,000 from the Scottish Government was granted to the city council which will benefit at least 400 young people in the city. During Thursday’s full council meeting councillor Blair Anderson asked about the number of free school meals that would be served as a result of this free school meal expansion.
Councillor Christina Cannon, convenor of education and early years, advised members that the test pilot would provide meals to pupils whose parents are carers or in receipt of the Scottish child payment. She said: “This pilot will last for one year and money was awarded to eight local authorities in total, Glasgow being one of them.
“As part of this Glasgow has received £201,000 in funding from the Scottish Government and this will help us roll out the scheme to four secondary schools in the city which will benefit roughly 400 pupils.
“Of course we want everyone in these schools who are eligible to take up the free school meals on offer.
“This is great news for Glasgow and families in the city because we know school meals are essential for fuelling our pupils’ learning allowing them to flourish.
“We are continuing to put children, young people and families first and this investment will also complement the commitment the SNP group made in our budget in February this year delivering free school meals to all primary six pupils starting in August this year and expanding to all primary seven pupils in August next year.”
Councillor Anderson said it was great to hear that hundreds of young people and their families would benefit from the scheme.
He said: “As the city convenor points out the uptake is important not just the availability of young people who receive the free school meals.
“In the past catering services have done very good work making engaging and exciting menus that keep kids in schools to combat the peer pressure to go out to the chippy at lunch.
“Will the city convenor be engaging with officers ahead and roll out in August that particularly in secondary schools our menus are attractive so they benefit from free school meals.”
Councillor Cannon confirmed that she would and that she was very happy with the progress that had been made in the tastiness of school meals.