School meal issues leave a bad taste

Food is something many of us take for granted.

But it’s something we need to have a serious discussion about in Scotland and we need to acknowledge too many people, including children, are going hungry.

Thanks to a brutal welfare regime imposed by the Tory UK Government, food poverty continues to be a scourge across the country.

Recent figures from A Menu for Change show that in Scotland there was a 22 per cent increase in distribution from food banks between April 2018 and September 2019 compared to the same period the previous year.

On top of that, an investigation by the Scottish Greens recently discovered that families in Scotland have accrued more than £1 million of school meals debt.

In the area covered by Perth and Kinross Council, parents are £80,551 in the red.

For parents in Perthshire this will be particularly galling, with memories of the dry unappetising turkey burgers served to pupils at Blairgowrie High still fresh in the memory.

The issue of school meals throughout the region was high on the political agenda in the latter half of 2019 with controversy surrounding plans to switch production to a centralised unit in Dundee producing frozen meals.

That proposal was ultimately, and rightly, rejected by the council but the battle for better quality food for our children goes on.

Currently the Scottish Government provides funding for free school meals for every child in primary one through to primary three, so the importance of nutritious meals in a child’s education is clearly recognised by policy makers.

The problem is that a child’s need for healthy food doesn’t suddenly diminish when they start their fourth year at school or when they move into secondary education.

Free school meals are available for people on low incomes past primary three, but all the evidence suggests that the uptake of means tested benefits is far lower than universal benefits.

These debt figures simply confirm that fact.

The fact is that some children in Scotland are going hungry, which has an impact on their attainment at school and compounds a vicious cycle of poverty.

The Scottish Government has looked to Finland in the past for policy inspiration and should do so again. There, every child is provided with a nutritious breakfast and lunch, even during school holidays, ensuring they never have to go hungry.

There are an abundance of local producers throughout Perthshire and the children in our schools shouldn’t feel so cut off or distant from where their food comes from. It’s far from impossible.

The Food for Life programme is already running in nine local authorities, including neighbouring Stirling, and is designed to reconnect people with food production while teaching them how it’s grown and cooked.

Food is such an integral part of our lives and it’s a real shame that its production and consumption has come to be dominated by faceless corporations or distant factories, but that needn’t be the case. We have all the tools and resources we need to ensure that no child in Scotland goes hungry. All that’s needed now is the will.