Zoe McIntyre, Project Manager at the Food Foundation, explains why extending free school meals to more children is urgently needed and what you can do to help.
We all know what happens when we feel hungry. Depleted energy levels, wavering concentration, our mood takes a turn. It’s certainly not a state we’d wished on anyone, least of all our nation’s children.
Yet child hunger in Britain is rising at an alarming rate. Soaring food inflation, compounded by steep energy price hikes, is gravely affecting families – most severely those on low incomes who face unprecedented financial pressure. The latest data tells us that one in four households with children have experienced food insecurity, affecting an estimated four million children in the UK. We know parents go to extraordinary lengths to shield their children from the impact of food insecurity, but sadly this isn’t always possible.
In these challenging times, more must be done to protect children from the ravages of hunger and poor diet. Our Free School Meal programme, which has been a cornerstone of state education since 1906, is a targeted and effective way to provide such a safety net. For many children, it can be their main source of hot, nutritious food – particularly when the cost of putting on the cooker at home is so unaffordable. But provision is currently falling short; in England there are a staggering 800,000 children living below the poverty line who don’t qualify for a free school meal.
This is because the threshold for qualifying for free school meals in England is far too low. While from reception to year two children benefit from a universal school meal offer, afterwards free school meal eligibility is means-tested and to qualify a family’s household earnings must be less than £7,400 per year (not including benefits and after taxes). There is great inequality across UK nations; in Wales and Scotland universal school meals are being rolled out across all primary schools while in Northern Ireland, eligibility is set at double the level of England (£14,000). To fix this shortcoming, the Government should urgently raise the eligibility threshold in England in line with Universal Credit, so no child in poverty misses out. This should be a first step towards a fairer school food system, where all children have equal access to a school meal, no matter their background.
There has been mounting pressure on the Government to increase eligibility from various groups and individuals. The National Food Strategy (an independent review commissioned by the Government) made Free School Meal eligibility extension a key recommendation in its report, which was ignored in the Government’s response. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Marcus Rashford campaigned for more free school meals and recently the Feed the Future campaign, fronted by a coalition of civil society organisations, has renewed calls for the Government to extend eligibility. Teachers, health professionals, school caterers, businesses, chef campaigners, politicians and parents and children themselves, have all backed the campaign.
So far, such calls have been ignored by the Government. This is despite compelling evidence of the many benefits of free school meals. There’s the obvious cost-saving for parents, who would save hundreds of pounds a year by not paying for a meal at school or a packed lunch. Research shows that school meals improve a child’s health and counter obesity, can improve behaviour, concentration in the classroom and contribute to better academic attainment. Recently, the accountancy firm PWC undertook the most ambitious analysis to date of the societal and economic benefits of expanding free school meal provision in England which showed that for every £1 invested there is a return of £1.38.
The lack of action from central Government has led to several local authorities in London using their own budgets to expand free school meals - in Islington, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and most recently Westminster. But not all councils can afford to do this, creating a postcode lottery of provision. Clearly, the current system undermines attempts to level up education for the most vulnerable children. Harrowing instances of children going hungry at school are recounted with increased frequency – in a recent survey, 80% of teachers said hunger was an issue and almost four out of five teachers saw children with insufficient amounts of food in their packed lunches.
It’s time to recognise school lunches as an integral part of the school day, crucial for children to thrive both now and in the future. To support the call for a better investment in school food, please write to your MP and tell them this is an issue they should care about. You can do this easily via the Feed the Future campaign website.
Twitter: @Food_Foundation
Website: foodfoundation.org.uk/
A representative from the Food Foundation will be returning to the post on the 6th of March to answer any questions
Guest posts
Guest Post
800,000 children in poverty are being denied a free school meal – the Government must fix this injustice immediately
NicolaDMumsnet · 15/02/2023 10:45
Zoe McIntyre
Zoe is a project Manager at the Food Foundation, a charity changing food policy and business practice to ensure everyone, across the UK nations, can afford and access a healthy and sustainable diet.
gogohmm · 15/02/2023 16:46
When the introduced universal free meals for infant school I wrote to my mp saying that it was the wrong policy, it should be free school meals for households earnings up to £25k (earnings plus means tested benefits) this was a few years ago so perhaps £30k now. People like me should not be getting free meals, they should be directed towards those who need them
noblegiraffe · 18/02/2023 09:55
And schools need to get better at fundraising to plug the gaps
No.
I'm head of a small primary school PTA in a 'naice' area, our school has lower levels of pupil premium as we have a (relatively) low proportion of children who qualify. The PTA raise on average £14-18k per year which is use to buy books, stationary, PE resources & we consider requests from teachers & school council. Bigger projects are financed too, including a new school minibus in recent years & a subsidy for maintenance.
The governors pointed out that while we're doing a fantastic thing for the school, the local authority has seen fit to further reduce the school's core budget, and part of the justification was that we have such a generous and active PTA - and other schools in more deprived areas need it more.
Everytime fundraising succeeds, the LA decide we need even less, so we need to fundraise more. But even in our area where the bulk of people are 2 working parent households, all I now hear is about the squeezed middle, cost of bills, people cutting back on clubs & activities, shopping habits changing etc. I don't know if our parent population can continue to be so generous if this current situation continues, and with funding cut to the quick, our children will certainly suffer 
gogohmm · 15/02/2023 16:46
When the introduced universal free meals for infant school I wrote to my mp saying that it was the wrong policy, it should be free school meals for households earnings up to £25k (earnings plus means tested benefits) this was a few years ago so perhaps £30k now. People like me should not be getting free meals, they should be directed towards those who need them
WGACA · 22/02/2023 18:10
Have you all seen an actual free school meal?
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