August 7, 2018 Blog

Labour will end holiday hunger

7th August 2018 

A Scottish Labour government would roll out North Lanarkshire’s ‘Club 365’ scheme across Scotland to end the scandal of children going hungry during the school holidays.

Labour run North Lanarkshire Council is providing free meals at weekends and holidays for primary school pupils who are entitled to free school meals, as well as games an activities at community centres.

Richard Leonard announced today that a future Scottish Labour government would ensure the scheme is rolled out across Scotland, by ensuring local councils have the funding they need to deliver the scheme.

Labour will also ensure the scheme applies to all primary school children by extending the current Scottish provision of free school meals to include primary years 4 through to 7, benefitting up to 183,000 Scottish pupils.

Local communities have been hammered during austerity, with £1.5billion cut from local budgets across Scotland. Only Labour is proposing to make the richest pay their fair share so we can stop these cuts and invest instead.

Speaking as he visited a Club365 community centre in Coatbridge today, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said:

“No child in Scotland should be going hungry over the school holidays.

“The Club 365 scheme in North Lanarkshire is an innovative example of Labour councils tackling child poverty and working to close the attainment gap.

“The next Scottish Labour Government will roll these programmes out across the country and prioritise ending the scandal of children in Scotland going without a decent meal.

“We’ll deliver that promise by making the richest pay their fair share so local councils have the funding we need, and extending free school meals to all primary school pupils.”

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