Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Extra lunches on the menu for schoolkids
North Lanarkshire’s primary schools have begun serving up thousands of additional lunches each day following an expansion to free meals eligibility – and kitchen and dining hall capacities are now being assessed ahead of further rollouts.
All pupils in Primary Four across Scotland became entitled to free meals when the new term started, and the same provision is being expanded to Primary Five in January, meaning an extra 5750 youngsters will be entitled to free school lunches in this academic year.
With the programme expected to be expanded further to P6 and P7 next August, work is taking place to meet the appetite for provision, with nearly three-quarters of all eligible pupils so far taking up the lunchtime offer.
Members of North Lanarkshire’s education committee were updated on the preparations at their virtual meeting this week, with officials noting that a similar large-scale rollout of more than 6000 extra meals per day was successfully completed as part of the 1140 hours early-years commitment.
A report for councillors on the new policy said: “Implementation has raised several potential issues for consideration in providing free school meals to an additional 5750 pupils per day, [and] there is a considerable amount of work required to deliver this”.
It includes a “review of capacity of kitchens to undertake the additional provision, and the potential requirement to reopen [some] that, through previous savings, changed from production kitchens where meals were
made on site to dining centres where food is transported in.
“Another option which will be investigated is the use of secondary school kitchens which are predominantly larger [and] may have capacity to take on more work; meals would be transported to primary schools.”
The report added: “At present, dining rooms do not have the capacity to seat all children at one sitting for lunch. Many variations are in place to accommodate this - some larger schools have up to four sittings, [and] some utilise separate areas [like] classrooms for children who bring packed lunches.
“Many dining rooms are also used as dual-purpose areas and there is a very tight turnaround to clean the area before they are utilised for PE. Facilities
support services will work closely with head teachers to identify solutions.”
Coatbridge South councillor Tom Castles asked whether dining hall space was an issue “in a large number of schools, and what’s the long-term solution?”
He was told that “it’s not causing major issues; schools have worked to achieve that. As we move to next August, it might become a challenge moving forward and we can come back to a future committee with what’s planned in that area. There are a number of practical issues, and we’ve managed these and implemented this successfully, and are on track to get it implemented further in January.”
Councillors were also told that free breakfast club provision will be extended to all those now receiving free school meals, extending to P5 in January and older primary pupils in a year’s time, at a cost of nearly £60,000.
Participation rates are described as “very low across all schools”, at eight per cent of P4-7 pupils entitled to free meals in the year to April 2020, and officials said that a “vigorous marketing campaign” will take place to increase numbers.
The report added: “North Lanarkshire has an environment strategy which includes the single-use plastic action plan to 2024; use of plastic bottles has already been removed from primary schools as well as reducing many other items.
“New [school meal] regulations will increase access to fruit and vegetables, ensuring that children and young people can access their ‘five-a-day’ at school; reduce the amount of sugar that can be accessed in school; [and] bring provision of red and red processed meat in line with the Scottish dietary goals.”