Free school meals on menu for all young pupils … but who's paying?

EVERY child in the first three years of primary school will receive free school meals, the Scottish Government announced yesterday.

The Scottish Government had previously run a 5 million pilot project, giving primary one to three pupils in five council areas free school lunches.

The concordat deal with local councils had agreed that if the scheme was a success, legislation would be brought in to make sure all youngsters in primaries one to three would be entitled to free meals from August 2010.

But last night serious doubts were raised by council leaders about how it would be implemented and where the money would come from to pay for it.

Currently about 105,000 children are entitled to free school meals, but another 44,000 will have the option from August 2009 under plans revealed by The Scotsman yesterday to extend eligibility to families on maximum tax credit.

But the latest proposals, unveiled by Fiona Hyslop, the education secretary, will extend the provision further still to include every child up to primary three.

During the pilot the number of pupils in primaries one to three who ate school lunches rose from 53 to 75 per cent.

Schools in the Borders, East Ayrshire, Fife, Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire council areas took part in the pilot free school meals scheme, which ran from October last year to June this year. And the number of children eating school meals increased in all five areas.

Ms Hyslop said it had been "a success with pupils, parents and schools". She added: "This government has made it a priority to help children in their early years and this initiative does just that."

Last night some councils raised concerns that implementing the free school meals scheme would force cuts elsewhere. North Lanarkshire education convener, Jim Logue, said his council "won't be able to pay the estimated 1 million cost of free meals without making cuts to other education services".

He called on the government to meet the full cost of providing free meals for primary one to three pupils and said: "It's simply not good enough to put the burden on local government."

Inverclyde Council's leader, Stephen McCabe, claimed ministers were "naive" to suggest the local government settlement would cover the costs.

He added: "While in an ideal world this would be a welcome initiative, we don't live in an ideal world."

Peter Neild, the education convener at Angus Council said: "Goodness knows where the money is going to come from."

Bill Fernie, education chairman for Highland, said paying for free school meals would be "extremely difficult" and cost the council an estimated extra 1.9 million.

Labour's education spokeswoman, Rhona Brankin, said the move was a stunt, and said the government was asking councils to provide free school meals without providing the funding. Labour claimed the cost of free school meals could be up to 50 million a year.

Start them young before the junk food takes hold

THE main reason given by older children for leaving school premises to buy their own lunch was to get out of school and to hang out with their friends.

So I do believe it is important to start children off on the right foot when they are much younger, as it's so much harder later.

What I hope is that, by increasing the uptake of schools meals among the really little ones, you are instilling the healthy-eating habit in them. Then, when they do get freedom, you hope they are not going to just go for the junk food.

School meals are much healthier now than they used to be, but it does also depend on what the child chooses – some options are healthier than others.

There are standards on the amount of fat in school meals, the amount of salt and so on. Most of the unhealthiest options have been removed.

Things they used to be able to get, like chocolate bars, you won't find in school any more. If they choose a school lunch, you know what they are getting. If they have a lunchbox, school staff have no idea what's in it.

This is all about encouraging children to start eating healthily so they continue to do so throughout their whole school careers.

Carina Norris is a registered nutritionist