Councillors will today be asked to pledge almost £40,000 towards recruiting extra dining staff at Moray’s primary schools, in an effort to meet demand for a popular free meals scheme.
A national programme to supply all youngsters from primary one to primary three with a free lunch started earlier this year.
Last month Moray Council’s children and young people’s services committee backed plans to invest £38,400 into recruiting new canteen staff and expanding working hours, after learning of the burden that the scheme had placed on the existing workforce.
Members heard that as 77% of eligible pupils had taken advantage of the offer, with some schools struggling to feed every child during allotted meal times.
Today, the local authority’s policy and resources committee will be asked to authorise the release of the funds from council budgets.
Under the plans, schools can opt to increase the hours of existing staff to cover additional lunch-time sittings, or can employ more canteen staff to help ensure the youngsters are fed.
Since January, the area’s primary schools have been dishing out an average of 2,458 free meals every day.
During last month’s meeting, Elgin City North councillor Mike Shand said he “greatly welcomed” news of the project’s popularity.