Glasgow Council plans to write off parents’ unpaid school meal debt in an effort to ease pressure on hard-up families in Scotland’s largest city.
If approved at a full Council meeting, reserve funds are to be used to write off current debt, estimated to be about £300,000 ($A552,000).
Councillor Christina Cannon said the move would ensure that “no child is denied food in school, regardless of ability to pay at the time of eating”.
“The cost of living crisis and food inflation has raised food insecurity in the city in ways that have not been seen for decades,” Ms Cannon, who is Chair of the Council’s Education Committee, said.
A recent health and wellbeing census, published by the Scottish Government’s Learning Directorate, found that nearly 60 per cent of students at least sometimes went to bed or school hungry, while three per cent said they always went to bed hungry.
Unions and other activists have called for an end to the means-tested free school meals program, urging the Government to provide school dinners for all children in Glasgow and eradicate school meal debt.
Senior Organiser of the Unite union, Joe Rollin said the level of food poverty in Glasgow was absolutely shameful and if approved, the Council’s move would be a significant step forward.
A Council spokesperson said all school meals for students in Years 1 to 5 were already free, and with means testing for the parents of older children, more than 50 per cent of Glasgow families were currently entitled to free school meals.
For others, a “tasty, three-course meal served with water or milk”, costs £1.90 ($A3.50).
Glasgow, 26 March 2023
