Scottish Government Announces Free School Meals
2 October 2008
Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop and Children and Early Years Minister Adam Ingram announced today that all school pupils in primaries one to three are to be entitled to free school meals from August 2010.
Plans for a national roll out follow successful pilot schemes, which ran across five local authorities (Fife, East Ayrshire, Glasgow City, West Dunbartonshire and the Scottish Borders) and 35,000 children between October 2007 and June 2008.
Uptake of meals among P1s to P3s rose from 53% to 75%. Within the target group of P1-P3 pupils not registered for free school meals, uptake increased from 41% to 69%.
Ms Hyslop said:
"The Concordat between the Scottish Government and COSLA stated that if the evaluation of the trials were positive legislation would be introduced to allow extension of the nutritious free school meals to all children in P1 to P3.
"This Government has made it a priority to help children in their early years and this initiative does just that, providing every child with a free school meal in their first years at primary school."
The evaluation of the trial aimed to investigate practical issues and to assess early indications of health and other benefits.
Some pupils taking part in the trial were trying and enjoying new foods and some were asking for new foods at home, including healthier options.
Today’s announcement is the latest in the campaign by the Scottish Government to help develop children's tastes for healthy, wholesome and nutritious food by taking an early intervention approach to changing their eating habits, both at school and in the home.
New guidance was recently published to help school catering staff produce healthy meals. In August, all primary schools implemented new nutritional guidelines for the food and drink served and sold on site. Secondary schools will be following suit next August.
Ms Hyslop added:
"We are committed to tackling obesity and unhealthy eating habits at a young age and we are working with CoSLA to deliver positive changes for Scotland's children.
"As part of Scotland's first-ever national food and drink policy, we are encouraging all Scots to develop healthy eating habits that will benefit them for the rest of their lives and help tackle the serious problem of obesity.
John Dickie, head of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland and a leading member of the Free School Meals Campaign, said:
"This is a massive step forward in the campaign to ensure every child, whatever their home circumstances, gets a healthy meal at school.
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