Waiting lists for free school holiday meals in Glasgow launched amid soaring demand

Demand for out-of-school free kids’ meals has proven so popular that services have been forced to create waiting lists,with some families directed to food banks.

A total of £2.26m has been approved for the holiday food programme this financial year, which aims to feed children who would miss out on school dinners during closures.

Glasgow’s city treasurer, Ricky Bell, hailed the scheme as a “lifeline” as across summer, October break and Easter, the scheme is expected to offer 190,000 spaces and benefit 20,242 children.

The “universal” scheme also sees nursery, primary and secondary children take part in activities and go on trips and councillor Bell said for some youngsters it would be the first time they visit the seaside.

The programme is delivered by local organisations.

But one “common challenge” is an increasing “demand for the service” according to a council monitoring report.

It said: ”To manage demand, providers have reported working jointly with other providers and sign-posting service users to another service if they were at capacity and families to food banks. Some organisations had waiting lists and tried to accommodate all children at some point within the programme.”

Speaking at today’s city administration committee, Councillor Ricky Bell said: “As the years go on the demand for this service continues to increase with over 23,000 children and young people benefiting from this programme during the summer of 2025 alone.”

He added: “I’m extremely proud of our commitment to this holiday programme.”

Explaining how he had visited a number of the organisations running the holiday scheme in his Govan ward, he said: “It really is very powerful to see those young people being engaged with and also the fact that we have always made this programme universal means there is no stigma attached to it. All young people within that area are able to attend and take up the service.

“It is the part of our budget that I am most proud of.”

The scheme has been funded since 2018 in Glasgow by the SNP city administration, according to a statement released from the party.

Councillors sitting on the city administration committee approved funding for the holiday programme to cover the summer and October breaks this year and spring 2027 – to be delivered by third sector organisations.

The programme was oversubscribed by 48% – and 24 organisations were turned down. More than 50 organisations received a share of £2.26m across all 23 council wards.