June 07, 2022

Aberlour Report Brings Out Shocking Mid-Day Meal Results in Scottish Schools

N New research has found that more than £1m is owned by families across Scotland who are unable to pay for their children’s school meals. This distressing fact comes at a time when people are just managing to come back to normal after the pandemic took its toll on global economies.

The report prepared by the Aberlour Children’s Charity, shows that the number of people who cannot afford mid-day meals in Scotland have increased drastically. Morag Treanor, a professor at the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University, called the £1m figure just the tip of the iceberg and said that the statistic was shocking.

…far fewer families are eligible for free school meals now than they were 20 years ago when the thresholds were first introduced, despite the fact that in the last 10 years we’ve seen child poverty significantly rise...

The report found that students who are not eligible for free meals are going hungry, while others deliberately save their lunch money to take the money back home. Speaking to the media, a student in Scotland’s second year was quoted as saying, “In my friend group, I’d say about half of them can’t eat food when we go out, so you see people buying food for their friends… we go to Greggs and, because I’ve got like £3 or £3.50 to spend, I’ll get two yum yums and a sausage roll and I’ll give them the yum yums.”

The Aberlour report has called on the Scottish government to do more for fulfilling mid-day meals. They urge government authorities to increase the free school meal threshold to £25,190 and to have it increase annually in line with inflation.

“The Scottish government can do that through devolved powers. Far fewer families are eligible for free school meals now than they were 20 years ago when the thresholds were first introduced, despite the fact that in the last 10 years we’ve seen child poverty significantly rise,” said a source associated with the Aberlour report.

Posted in News and tagged News, Scotland, Mid-Day Meal, Aberlour Report
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