The case for Universal Free School Meals
Young people know the value of a nutritious meal at school - something I want to see provided to every pupil
In Liverpool Riverside, that’s 38% of children: on average 11 children living in poverty in every single classroom in our constituency.
One simple way to help struggling families, facing the worst cost of living crisis in more than 40 years, is to provide universal free school meals. Some 800,000 children living in poverty are ineligible for this because the cap on earnings outside of Universal Credit is so low.
This government had to be shamed by footballer Marcus Rashford into providing free school meals for starving children during school holidays in the pandemic.
They claim to have lifted 400,000 children out of poverty by providing a temporary Universal Credit £20/week uplift during Covid – then plunged them back into poverty by scrapping it - while they have presided over £21 billion lost to fraud since the beginning of the pandemic, with little hope of recovering it.
Why are universal free school meals so important? All campaigners agree that providing a child with a hot, nutritious meal every school day helps with concentration, which enables greater learning, leading to more opportunities in future. Because every child deserves an equal chance to achieve, and not be held back by poverty.
Scotland and Wales provide free school meals to all primary aged children, Sadiq Khan has pledged the same to all London primary children for the next year, and there are nine London boroughs doing the same including Southwark, Camden and Brent. A-Z list of London Boroughs offering free school meals | Debt Free Advice
I am proud to support the campaigns by the NEU - Child poverty | National Education Union (neu.org.uk) and the Daily Mirror’s Free School Meals for All: Free School Meals for All - Latest news updates, pictures, video, reaction - The Mirror and to back the Bill brought by Zarah Sultana MP to extend universal free school meals in England.
In December I, along with NEU members and young school students from my Liverpool Riverside constituency, handed in a letter to No.10 Downing Street asking the Prime Minister to provide the food that pupils need to be able to concentrate and perform well in school.
I held a meeting in Parliament, bringing together a range of partners such as the NEU, Barnados to support this basic ask – and I have continued to raise this in Parliament, asking Government Ministers when they will put our children, all our children, first and provide them with the food they need to achieve their full potential.