Scottish council plans schools meals 365 days a year

North Lanarkshire Council is proposing to tackle ‘holiday hunger’ and provide school meals 365 days a year to children from low income families.

If approved, the ‘Food 365’ programme would cover the 175 days of the year when lunches are not served in school, with the council set to run a pilot project in the spring break, with the aim of then extending the scheme over the summer holidays. A NUT survey found that 80 per cent of teachers noted a rise in "holiday hunger" where children return from holidays suffering from poor nutrition.

Research has shown that almost a third of parents with incomes under £25,000 skip meals during the school holidays so that their children can eat, and nearly two thirds are not always able to afford food outside of term time. This rises to half and three-quarters respectively for parents with incomes under £15,000.

Frank McNally, convener of education, said: "These proposals to tackle weekend and holiday hunger are the most ambitious in the country. Groups like the Trussell Trust are struggling to cope with demand from parents and research has suggested that pressure on food banks doubles during the holidays. North Lanarkshire has one of the highest concentrations of deprivation in the country and this is only going to be exacerbated by further welfare reforms."