A LABOUR-RUN local authority plans to offer year-round free school meals to children from low-income households, in what it described as “the most ambitious” proposal in Britain to tackle “holiday hunger.”

North Lanarkshire Council aims to expand its free meal entitlement to cover the 175 days of the year when pupils are not at school during weekends and school holidays.

The council said the “Food 365” programme, which will be discussed at an education committee meeting on Tuesday, would bring noticeable benefits for young people in the area.

If approved, the scheme will be piloted in Coatbridge over the spring break and, if successful, could be rolled out across the area in time for the summer holiday.

Councillor Frank McNally, North Lanarkshire’s education convener, said: “Groups like the Trussell Trust are struggling to cope with demand from parents and research has suggested that pressure on foodbanks doubles during the holidays.”

Mr McNally added that North Lanarkshire had “one of the highest concentrations of deprivation in the country” and said the situation was “only going to be exacerbated by further welfare reforms.”

Nearly 21 per cent of children in North Lanarkshire live in low-income households and the council is one of the nine “challenge authorities” in Scotland with the highest levels of deprivation.

National research shows almost a third of parents with incomes under £25,000 skip meals during the school holidays so that their children can eat, and nearly two-thirds are not always able to afford food outside of term time, the council said.

This rises to half and three-quarters respectively for parents with incomes under £15,000.

A survey carried out by the National Union of Teachers in England found that 80 per cent of teachers had noted a rise in “holiday hunger,” where children return from holidays suffering from poor nutrition.

John Dickie, director of Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, welcomed the proposal, but stressed that it was “really important that healthy free holiday lunches are offered as part of a wider package of holiday activities.”

The council’s proposal follow Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to Scotland earlier this week, when he said: “Holiday hunger is unacceptable. We simply shouldn’t have hungry children in Scotland in 2018. The system is broken.”