By Stewart Paterson

THOUSANDS more children in Glasgow will qualify for free school meals under plans being unveiled today by the city council.

The SNP administration at the City Chambers is setting aside £1.5m to extend the scheme to include every pupil in P4.

The deal will see 4500 extra pupils qualify for free meals regardless of their parents’ income.

Currently all P1 to P3 pupils get free school meals in the city’s schools.

Another £2m will be allocated to fund a programme to provide free meals for those who need it during school holidays.

The city treasurer said the council would provide funding and work with the third sector and community organisations to develop programmes to run free meals service out of term time.

The SNP is delivering its first Glasgow City Council budget today with the move aimed at helping the bid to drive up attainment figures and combat holiday hunger.

Last week North Lanarkshire Council announced it would provide free school meals 365 days a year.

Of the 6000 pupils in P4 classes across Glasgow around 1500 are eligible for free school meals. Another 1300 use the school meals service but pay for it however many are thought to be just over the threshold of qualifying income.

It is expected that uptake of free meals will double when made available to all.

Free school meals are estimated to save parents around £460 a year per child.

Alan Gow, City Treasurer, said: “This city voted for change and the challenge for us is to deliver that change. We’ve heard from our communities that they are often unhappy with the levels of service, so this budget, the first by an SNP administration in Scotland’s engine room, is about laying the foundations for reforming and reshaping.

“We have made real progress on any number of areas in a short space of time and this budget presents us with wonderful opportunity to really make that change the city wants, including more power to our communities.

“But hunger continues in this city. Westminster Tory austerity is continuing to bite into family incomes, into benefits, into the very fabric of our communities. This is something which has to end. We need to take a stand on this and I fully expect support from all parties for measures in our budget to address this.”

The budget is expected to be approved in a deal with the Greens to give the SNP the majority of 43 councillors they need to get it passed.

Labour will put forward its own proposals at the meeting in the City Chambers today.

Mr Gow added “We will feed more of our children in school and more out of school. “We will invest £2m so all children receive a hot meal during school holidays, working within our communities and hand in hand with the third sector, housing associations, churches, and all those in a position to help to eradicate hunger. We have held pilots to inform how best to facilitate this.”