Council plans end to free milk in schools
local authority says it can save £50,000 by withdrawing lunch extras
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Moray Council is proposing to save money by stopping the free milk and bread it hands out to primary pupils who have canteen dinners.
The local authority says it can save £50,000 by withdrawing the lunch extras.
Moray could be one of the first education authorities to end the free milk and bread – introduced four years ago.
The council is proposing the cuts as part of the £20million savings it needs to make over the next four years.
Labour Party chiefs last night attacked the proposals as a return to the “Thatcher, Thatcher Milk Snatcher” era when Sir Edward Heath’s education secretary Margaret Thatcher ended universal free school milk.
Moray Constituency Labour Party chairman Sandy Keith said the plans were an attack on the most disadvantaged schoolchildren and sent out the wrong message about diet. “In terms of health, it does not send out the right message,” he said.
Last night a school dinner lady, who asked not to be named, said the free cartons of milk are popular. “The milk is a better option because a lot of the kids drink the free milk and a lot of them probably don’t drink it at home,” she said. “But a lot of the kids don’t eat the bread anyway.”
Brian Ratcliffe, professor of nutrition at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, said the move was unfortunate.
But he believes that many schools, particularly in Wales and England, do not provide free bread and milk.
He said: “It may well be that Moray Council is already doing something above and beyond what others do.
“But it is still a shame that this is being removed unless there is evidence that it is not having benefits.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said there was no pledge to provide free milk or bread to primary pupils, but from next year P1 to P3 pupils would receive free school meals.
Aberdeen, Highland, Shetland, and Argyll and Bute education authorities are providing the service and have no plans to stop it. Aberdeen provides free milk and fruit and has also no plans to cut that service.
No one was available at NHS Grampian to comment on the potential health implications for pupils.
It also emerged last night that Moray Council could be breaking the law with plans to save £25,000 by cutting the advertising budget to promote school meals.
The government said the proposal would, if adopted, breach the law. A spokesman said: “The Schools Health Promotion and Nutrition (Scotland) Act 2007 places a duty on education authorities to promote school lunches and, in particular, free school lunches. We would expect Moray Council to take the necessary steps to ensure this happens.”
The council’s deputy convener, Allan Wright, said he could not comment while the proposals were at consultation stage. But he said there were “differing interpretations of what constitutes the promotion of school meals”.
Moray Council’s figures suggest that last year’s £25,000 advertising campaign to promote school meals was a success.
An additional 31,241 school meals were served compared with 2007. That year 520,478 meals were served. Last year the figure rose to 551,719.
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