It shouldn’t be left to chefs like me to feed hungry children – what is the government thinking?

Feed the future: As the cost of living continues to rise, we need free school meals more than ever

During the throes of the pandemic in 2020, my cookery school (Life Kitchen in Sunderland) gave out free school meals to kids in the holidays when the government would not. Sunderland is an area of deprivation with a lot of hungry children. This was never more apparent than at that time.

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We cooked and gave away many meals – including mac and cheese in the hundreds – alongside lunch boxes filled with crisps, yoghurts, fruit and sandwiches. Simple food to many of us, but vital food to kids without.

While meeting many Sunderland parents in need during that time, I heard many heartbreaking stories of the reality of families who can’t afford food during the school holidays. It really hit home that this is a daily battle in many households – and how brave and selfless these parents are, often going without themselves, to ensure their children are fed and watered.

I received a pleading message from a parent of two small children who couldn’t afford the bus fare to get to us and pick up food that day. We had to go beyond our quota of food we had prepared for each child and packed up several meals, delivering them to her door. The mother was overjoyed. It is always worth it.

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But that isn’t a happy story, is it? We were, of course, glad to help; but deeply saddened and very quickly worried that once we had packed up and gone this family would return to the same situation again and again.

The government’s lack of help at the time forced us to step in. We did so with help from Sunderland City Council, who funded the meals for the two days we ran this project. Life Kitchen is a not-for-profit cookery school for people whose taste has been affected by cancer or cancer treatment. We only have a few members of staff, so it was tough for us to pull this off in the pandemic.

It goes without saying that better support is needed from the government to prevent kids from going hungry now, as the cost of living rises and families are forced into poverty.

We shouldn’t have hungry children. Nobody would choose this for their kids and when you see it, even just from the fringes, it is completely and utterly devastating.

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Demand for free school meals in the North East is the highest in the country, with 29.1 per cent of children currently deemed eligible. To many, that figure may seem shocking – but as someone who grew up in and around deprivation, this doesn’t surprise me.

Something must be done. Food security at an early age is an incredibly important part of childhood development and can have a huge impact on later life, not only physically, but mentally. Adulthood is stressful enough without the psychological baggage of food insecurity from our pasts weighing us down too.

Free school meals are a vital part of society today – an essential one. As the cost of living continues to rise, we need them more than ever. Food and education are a human right.

Being fed while in education is conducive to a better future – one we must provide.

Ryan Riley is a celebrity chef and founder of Life Kitchen, a cookery school for people with cancer