An emergency meeting of council leaders in Scotland was held on Friday after the Scottish government announced the plans, but refused to provide extra funding.
Sixteen of the 32 authorities in Scotland said they would need extra resources above funding already agreed between the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the SNP.
The move to offer free school meals came as an evaluation of a six-month, £5m pilot scheme, which ran across five local authorities and covered 35,000 children, found that the pilot had significantly boosted the uptake of free school meals.
COSLA called the meeting after 16 councils, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, said they could not afford the policy.
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