A councillor has expressed her relief that all primary school children in the Vale of Glamorgan are now receiving free meals. The Vale of Glamorgan Council's cabinet member for education, arts and the Welsh language, Concillor Rhiannon Birch said the thought of children going to school hungry before free meals were rolled out was "absolutely terrible".
Delivery of the free school meals scheme, which was rolled out to primary schools in the Vale of Glamorgan as of Monday April 24, is being done in partnership with the council's Big Fresh Catering Company. "I can tell you that as a retired teacher I used to see children coming into school who had not eaten breakfast and had possibly the absolute bare minimum amount of money for lunch," said Cllr Birch, who was at Barry Island Primary School to see the rollout of free meals in action.
"So knowing that children will be able to have a free school meal, and obviously a lot of these schools run breakfast clubs as well, means you have got children coming into school who are ready to learn and are not worrying about where the next meal is coming from." The head teacher of Barry Island Primary School, Matthew Gilbert, said they periodically had cases of children coming into school hungry before the free school meals rollout.
