Moray councillor urges action on free school meals

A BUCKIE councillor is urging action on calls to make free school meals more accessible in Moray's secondaries.

Earlier this year students at Buckie Community High School swung their weight behind a petition run by then S6 Head Student Lori Lappin calling on Moray Council to change the way the daily free school meal allowance was credited to the cashless catering card system used in the regions high schools.

As things stand, money is not allocated to these cards until 11am, which is after the morning break at 10.25am.

Lori and her many supporters argued that this was essentially putting a curfew on hunger – students entitled to free school meals who had not had breakfast or were unable to bring a snack for break time were effectively being forced to go hungry until lunch at 1.10pm, which would affect their ability to learn. In order to combat this an earlier allocation of the daily allowance would be required.

The petition was presented to the then chairwoman of Moray Council's education committee, Buckie councillor Sonya Warren, with high hopes that a report on the matter would be put to the first education committee scheduled for after May's local authority elections. The calls made in the petition went on to gain support from senior secondary students cross Moray.

However,this has not happened and Councillor Warren has spoken of her frustration at the apparent lack of progress or updates.

She said: "I've been frequently asked about when this is coming to committee by both pupils and parents but so far I've heard nothing.

"As far as I was led to understand it was originally coming to the first education committee after the May elections, then told it would be after recess. However here we are approaching the next Education committee in November, eight months after the original petition and agreed request.

"When I was Chair of Education Committee I asked for the report at the April committee after being presented with a petition from young people at Buckie High School and supported by senior pupils at nearly all our secondary schools.

"I did ask for updates in the last education committee and also economic development and infrastructure services committees, however as yet I've not been updated which is very disappointing.

"Given the seriousness of the cost of living crisis and how hungry some of our young people are by break time, I really think we need to bring this forward as a matter of urgency. This single simple change could improve young people's attainment, their ability to concentrate and focus on learning, along with benefits to their health and well-being.

"These children are entitled to a free meal yet we are making them wait until after 1pm instead of letting them access food when they are hungry and needing to eat at break time.

"Given that the money is given to feed eligible children must use it for what it is intended. The Scottish Government provides full funding for every eligible child's meal. The young people we are speaking about are perfectly able to know when they are hungry and need to eat, we should give then the right to choose when to eat, it's a basic right for children."

A spokesperson for Moray Council said: “We are listening to the feedback from families and work is going on behind the scenes to consider the technical and financial implications of adapting the system.

“It is still our intention to bring this to committee for discussion – likely to be in November as we are seeking advice from a national body on how we could make this work to improve the service, while also meeting our obligations to provide a lunch to those in receipt of free school meals.”