The free school meal programme currently in place will be extended over the summer, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
She said children who are entitled to free school meals will continue to be provided with them under schemes operated by local councils to deal with the coronavirus impact.
£12.6m of funding will be provided to local authorities to allow them to operate the schemes.
She said: “We know families are under considerable financial pressure just now and free school meals are a vital help to many, but they’re also really important to the health and wellbeing of children.
“We will provide £12.6 million in funding to local authorities to enable the continuation of free school meals during the period from the end of June to the start of the new term in August.”
The First Minister said the funding would be allocated “in a way that allows councils, as many of them do, to co-ordinate school meal provision with wider support that they make available to families”.
She added that £15 million will also be made available to councils to continue to provide extra support to those in severe poverty or who face other barriers to accessing food.
It comes as new figures show a sharp rise in the number of people claiming universal credit because they are unemployed.
