Blog: The Scottish Government must end school meal debt for good

The very idea of school meal debt is offensive. 

That children should ever be burdened with debt or could be denied a meal at school because of that debt goes against everything that seems fair and just.

And yet school meal debt is on the rise as ever more families struggle to feed their children at home let alone at school.

At Aberlour every day we see families who rely on foodbanks because they can’t afford the cost of food.

We see parents going without so that their children can eat.

We see children arrive at school having had no breakfast.

How can we accept this is the reality for so many families in a country as wealthy as ours?

In the coming months energy bills will rise again.

So many of Scotland’s poorest families are looking ahead to another difficult winter wondering how they are going to get by.

As cost of living pressures continue to bite hard on families we need to do everything we can to provide urgent relief and reduce the financial burden they are facing.

Last year, along with The Scottish Sun, Aberlour successfully campaigned to persuade the then First Minister to write off school meal debt for around 30,000 children and their families across Scotland.

We welcomed that one-off commitment and applauded action by the Scottish Government that would go some way to relieving the pressure on families. 

However, many of the families who have benefitted from having that school meal debt written off are seeing it begin to build again.

The reason for this is simple – for too many families their circumstances have not changed.

Families are still faced with impossible choices. 

Their household budgets have been stretched so far but now can’t go any further.

Thousands of hard working, low income families across the country rely on benefits because their incomes alone can’t provide them with what they need to afford even just the basics.

But so many of those families still do not qualify for free school meals, even though they struggle to put food on the table.

And so, the result is that children who are not eligible for a free school meal go to school but don’t have any money for their lunch. 

In most cases, primary school aged children will be fed but their parents will be charged the cost of that meal, and that is when school meal debt begins to accrue.

High school aged will often just go hungry with no means to pay for or access a school lunch.

For some families school meal debt has risen to hundreds of pounds that then becomes an unmanageable financial burden on top of other money worries.

This creates anxiety and contributes to ever worsening feeling of financial crisis that so many families find themselves in, impacting on parents’ and children’s wellbeing.

Earlier this year children’s rights were finally protected in law.

This includes children’s right to be fed and not to go hungry.

Government has a duty to uphold that right for all children in Scotland.

That is why, along with many other children’s charities and anti-poverty organisations, we called on John Swinney to use this week’s Scottish Budget to act to end school meal debt and hidden school hunger for good.

To go one better than his predecessor by making the one-off school meal debt fund permanent so that no child ever again has to feel the burden and the shame of school meal debt.

So, we are delighted by reports in the Scottish Sun that he has committed to write off all school meal debt for children and their families across Scotland.

It is the right thing to do.

However, that is only part of the problem.

We also need preventative action to stop school meal debt happening in the first place.

That is why increasing free school meal eligibility to all low income families is vital.

We know that guaranteeing free school meals to all those working families who also rely on benefits just to make ends meet will help to see an end to school meal debt.

The First Minister has the chance to end school meal debt for good.

I hope he takes it.

SallyAnn Kelly OBE

Aberlour CEO

This opinion piece was written for the Scottish Sun and published on Monday 2nd December 2024.