Children and young people call for universal free school meals at Parliament roundtable

Four young people from the Cost of the School Day Voice network got straight to the point at a Scottish Parliament roundtable event about Universal Free School Meals (UFSM) which took place this week.

“If we don’t have enough food in school we don’t have any energy, we’re grumpy and we have hungry tummies, we struggle to focus on our learning and don’t have as much fun with our friends. Hunger impacts on your learning” said Cathy, a primary 7 learner at Newton Primary School in South Ayrshire. 

Leland, in P6 and also from Newton Primary, described how “We think there should be free school meals not just P1 to 5 but for everyone. It’s important to have free school meals beyond P5 because children are growing, and they need more food and energy to learn.”

Summer and Brooke from S1 at Ardrossan Academy in North Ayrshire highlighted other issues, including the stigma attached to claiming free school meals. “We noticed in our school canteen that your free meal balance comes up on the till when you put in your PIN to get food.” Summer said, “and we don’t think that should be the case, so we spoke to North Ayrshire Council. After the summer they’re going to remove the balance and I think that should help a lot because that means there won’t be that stigma of you’ve got this and you’ve not got that.”

Brooke said that ”I think that free school meals take the financial pressure off of families,” and she has a specific request: “So we ask if the government could give more money to schools to help with free school meals for everyone.”

The Scottish Parliament roundtable that Brooke, Summer, Leland and Cathy took part in was hosted by Monica Lennon MSP and run in collaboration with the STUC Women’s Committee and the Sunday Mail as part of the Food for Thought campaign. The learners from Ayrshire were amongst those attending to discuss free school meals, and other key partners who understand the challenges of the USFM rollout, as well as the change it could bring about for young people.

While the rollout of USFM to Primaries 1 to 5 has already been completed, P6 and 7 learners aren’t yet included in the scheme, which has been delayed and is behind schedule, and a promised pilot Universal School Meals scheme for secondary schools has not yet happened.

Amongst the issues discussed, many attending the event called for eligibility thresholds to be raised, and extended to all young people whose families are receiving the Scottish Child Payment as a valuable step towards UFSM for all.

Jenny Gilruth, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, attended the event on Wednesday and responded to what young people had to say. The following day, in her answer to a question in the main chamber from Carol Mochan MSP about the possibility of raising the free school meals eligibility threshold, Ms Gilruth said that she would be happy to discuss the issue with officials “recognising the pivotal role that free school meals provision has in tackling child poverty.”