‘It breaks my heart’ – youth leader voices hunger fears

Fears that children are worrying about where their next meal will come from have been voiced by a youth leader.

Bailey-lee Robb, 18, said he had heard of children as young as 12 fretting over their family having enough to eat.

After the Scottish Government announced £27.6 million to allow councils to continue free school meal payments and other food provision for low-income families through the holidays, the member of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP) said it was vital the help reaches those who need it.

But he also spoke of his concern for those families just short of qualifying for the school meal entitlement and struggling make ends meet.

Lochgelly High School leaver Bailey-lee, soon to be an Edinburgh

University student, said: “The biggest worry I have had during this time has been for the young people who are on free school meals and who are missing out.

“We are going into the summer holidays and a lot of great organisations have stepped up to the mark but we need to ensure the help gets to them.

“Across the holidays a lot of families, not just those entitled to free school meals, feel the pinch.”

Bailey-lee said he had heard of children’s worries when he volunteered for his local food bank.

“This shouldn’t be a worry for people aged 12,” he added.

“It breaks my heart. How do you look an eight, nine, 10-year-old child in the face and say summer is going to be bit harder this year?”

While the priority for him and his fellow MSYPS at the start of the coronavirus outbreak had been representing young people’s concerns about exams, he said their focus had since shifted.

He said: “Our concerns at the very beginning were about exams and what happens with this and where do we go from here.

“I and others at the Scottish Youth Parliament have a great working relationship with the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) and we were able to go to them and say ‘here are our concerns’.

“A lot of people are now concerned about holiday hunger and how people will get lunch when their mum is only receiving universal credit, for example.”

Worries that free school meal payments would end with the school term have now been allayed. but Bailey-lee said: “What about those who fall through the cracks?”