Joanna Blythman on free school meals

It has been a long, hard battle to sell the concept of universal free school meals as a crucial pro-health and anti-poverty measure, but eventually we're getting somewhere with the Scottish government's radical announcement last week that it will make school meals free for all children, irrespective of their parents' income, in the first three years of school.

It represents the first concrete sign that this government really means to tackle Scotland's abysmal eating habits, as opposed to waffling on about health education while doing nothing. But what do we get? Churlish negativity from Labour, Tories and LibDems and unconvincing squeals of "we haven't got the money" from some councils. For years, the debate around improving school meals was dogged by precisely this sort of laissez-faire, all talk, no action, foot-dragging inertia. It took the SNP until 2006 to adopt a universal free school meals policy, but it then made up for lost time by setting up a pilot to test the efficacy of such a policy, attaching a timetable for rolling out the initiative nationwide, should it prove successful.

Before that, the only parties that supported the concept were the Scottish Socialists and the Greens. I remember attending a heated meeting of the Scottish parliament's education committee in 2002 when it voted against the Free School Meals Bill, sponsored by Tommy Sheridan and the independent-minded Alex Neil (SNP) and John McAllion (Labour).

They had the backing of an impressively long list of trade unions, church organisations and non-governmental groups that work in the area of families and poverty, but to no avail.

Labour's ineffectual food czar, Gillian Kynoch - whose contract, happily, was not renewed last year - provided mealie-mouthed politicians with the justification they sought for doing nothing. Although there was evidence that good school meals would have a positive impact on health, she told the committee "there was no evidence that making them universally free would have any added benefit". Labour's Cathy Peattie, then deputy convener said: "Our committee is not persuaded that the free provision of school meals will automatically increase uptake as there appear to be various other factors, apart from cost, which influence the decisions of children."

In the full parliamentary debate, Scottish LibDem backbencher Mike Rumbles denounced the idea as the "economics of the madhouse". That all sounds pretty stupid now given the decisive results of the Scottish government-funded pilot study of universal free school meals which found that uptake shot up by between 22% and 32% among children who do not already qualify for free school meals, and 4.4% among those who do.

There is now no excuse for Scottish councils not to crack on with implementing the initiative. Those council leaders who complain that they haven't enough money to fund free school meals - only five or so to date out of 32 councils - don't have a leg to stand on.

They signed up to this under the terms of the concordat between the Scottish government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities when they agreed a £34.9 billion funding settlement, more generous than any other to date. (The estimated cost of providing free school meals is £30-50 million, so there ought to be enough money in the kitty of well-managed councils). Local authorities have also been given until 2010 to introduce the measure. Bluntly put, they knew it was coming, they have secured the funds needed, and have been given a reasonable time frame in which to deliver. Now they must just get on with doing it.

The pilot study showed how universal free meals can increase uptake even among children who are already entitled to them, demonstrating how means-testing, far from helping poor children, actually stigmatises them. This socially progressive free school meals policy will also be a boon to the low-income families who don't qualify for the existing free school meals scheme, and who are struggling even more in the current recession. With a square meal on the plate, there's a better chance for a greater number of kids to get something more out of their school experience rather than settling for a spiral of under-achievement. So what if a few well-off kids get a free meal that their parents could afford to buy? Poor eating habits aren't the exclusive territory of the working classes. Lots of affluent Scottish kids go through a school day revved up on sugary drinks and salty snacks. That needs changed too.

Universal free provision is not the sole means to improve school meals, but it is a mightily important first step. We still need to upgrade the quality of the food on offer in school cafeterias, rejig timetables to make way for less hurried lunchtimes, and kit out schools again with proper kitchens staffed by people whose task is to cook from scratch, not reheat processed food imports.

Ah yes, there's still so much to do to address the inadequate standard of school food, but for the first time in 20 years, I feel cautiously optimistic that our politicians are squaring up to the challenge.