Call for government to stop ‘calamitous hunger crisis’ by extending free school meals

Feed the Future: ‘In an alarming number of cases, the only healthy meal eaten each day is the free one provided in schools’

’Our younger people are experiencing an acute crisis of hunger and food insecurity’ (PA Archive)

The government is being called upon to almost triple the free school meal eligibility threshold for children in secondary school – from £7,4000 to £20,000 a year – to “avert a calamitous hunger crisis”.

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A letter to the secretary of state for education, Kit Malthouse – from Southwark Council – calls on him to “act now” by initiating “universal provision of free healthy, school meals for all primary school children, as well as raising the income threshold for all secondary school pupils”.

Cllr Jasmine Ali, deputy leader and cabinet member for children, said: “Our younger people are experiencing an acute crisis of hunger and food insecurity exacerbated by spiralling food prices. In an alarming number of cases, the only healthy meal eaten each day is the free one provided in schools.”

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The letter comes on top of the appeal by The Independent’s Feed the Future campaign in partnership with a coalition of campaigning organisations co-ordinated by the Food Foundation, calling on the government to extend free school meals to all children in poverty in England. Currently, 800,000 children live in households on universal credit but miss out on free school meals because their parents earn more than £7,400 a year, excluding benefits.

Southwark, where 43 per cent of children under-16 live in poverty, is one of four boroughs in London that have already put universal free school meals in place for primary school children with the costs paid for by the council. Their appeal is in line with National Food Strategy recommendations published this year.