Scottish Government expands free school meals programme

The Scottish Government announced on Monday it is expanding its Free School Meals programme to cover an additional 6000 high school pupils in a trial project beginning in August.

The expansion, funded by an investment of £3 million, sees free school meals offered to high school pupils for the first time and covers pupils in S1-S3 who are eligible for the Scottish Child Payment. This will bring the total number of pupils receiving free school meals in Scotland to over 360,000.

The intention to expand to free school meals was included in the Programme for Government released in May of this year, alongside plans to further fund breakfast clubs throughout the country, and to effectively scrap the two-child benefit cap.

This is currently a trial phase, however, and will not yet be implemented throughout the country, limited to only eight local authority areas: Aberdeen, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Fife, Glasgow, Moray, North Ayrshire, Shetland and South Lanarkshire.

First Minister John Swinney announced the expansion of the project while visiting Springburn Academy in Glasgow and said of the programme: “The free school meals programme is key in our national mission to eradicate child poverty.

“We know the positive impact that access to a healthy and nutritious meal can have on a pupil’s learning and achievement in school.”

Read the Scottish Government's announcement here.