Free school meals could be available to everyone no matter what you earn

A plan to make free school meals available to everyone has been proposed, in a bid to tackle child poverty and the rise in food banks. 

This would mean thousands more children could be entitled to free school meals, as a way of supporting households on low incomes, the Mirror reports.

New research by the Mayor of London found that around 400,000 children in the capital have ‘very low food security’. This means they are, or could be at risk of being, without proper access to affordable and nutritious food.

These findings highlight the enormity of the problem, as hundreds of thousands of kids aren’t getting proper nutrition at school or at home – and that’s just in London, up here in Greater Manchester we have some of the highest levels of child poverty and deprivation in the country.

Unison

To tackle the problem, the London Assembly has approved a motion asking the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to jointly write to the Secretary of State for Education and plead the case for universal free school meals for all kids.

At the moment, free school meals are usually given to those on low incomes who receive state support – but families could be missing out on millions.

Due to a loophole, where the money is given back to the company if a pupil doesn’t use their full allowance by the end of the day, thousands of families are losing out.

Luke Bramhall, from Children North East, said: “This is a national issue. From Brighton to Middlesbrough, from Manchester to Scunthorpe, Children North East has spoken to over 65,000 pupils in more than 180 schools across England as part of ‘Poverty Proofing the School Day’ which identifies barriers to equality of experience in education.

“Across the country we are told about how the money allocated to children on free school meals is taken off them at the end of the day – and that children are going without as a result.”

Fairholme Primary School

The charity is now calling on the Government to do something about this, by giving the allowance back to help struggling parents feed their children.

Kath Wade, at Tyne & Wear Citizens, added: “It’s simply not right that this is happening. All it requires is a simple change to an IT system to ensure the change from lunch goes to those pupils who need it most.

“A hungry child can’t concentrate, a child that can’t concentrate can’t learn, and a child that can’t learn can’t reach their full potential. And isn’t that what we all want?”