Free school meals for Primary 4 pupils will start in the new school year, with the scheme expanded to Primary 5s in January.
The confirmation of plans announced in March will ultimately lead to all primary pupils in Scotland being eligible for free school meals from the start of the 2022-23 school year.
Funding worth £28 million has been agreed for local authorities to provide the free school meals to P4 and P5 pupils during the next school year. Free meals are already available to all children in the first three years of primary school.
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The SNP manifesto promised free school meals for all primary pupils if the party was re-elected to government after the Scottish Parliament election in May.
A further £21.75 million will provide targeted free school meal support during school holidays in 2021-22, starting with the upcoming summer holiday.
The government estimates that this will cover approximately 145,000 primary and secondary children from low-income households, with individual councils deciding whether the provision is in the form of direct payments, vouchers or food parcels.
Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country, ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal every day they are in school, and are ready to engage in learning.
“The provision of £49.75 million in new funding to local authorities demonstrates our support for the health and wellbeing of children and young people, and our commitment to reduce the impact of poverty on thousands of families across the country.”
Stephen McCabe, children and young people spokesperson for local authorities body Cosla, said: “Councils across Scotland have long been committed to delivering healthy free school meals to eligible children and young people.
“We are pleased that, in partnership with the Scottish government, this commitment can be further expanded upon by providing free school meals to all Primary 4s in August 2021 and Primary 5s in the latter part of the academic year.
“Local authorities will continue to work hard to ensure that children and young people have access to healthy and nourishing meals so that they are fully able to learn, play and engage with their peers and communities.”
When the policy was announced at the SNP conference last November, by the education secretary at that time, John Swinney, he pledged that all primary pupils would receive free meals by August 2022, a move described by anti-poverty campaigners as “massively welcome”.
A note of caution was sounded by Aberlour Child Care Trust, however, which tweeted that it was “a welcome commitment” but that “we also need commitments to get money directly into the pockets of struggling families”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said today: “The commitment is to roll out universal free school meals to Primary 6 and 7 children by August 2022 and we will be working with our local authority partners over the course of 2021 to deliver this.”
