Government urged to give 1.5m more children free school meals in bid to tackle food crisis

The National Food Strategy, led by Leon restaurant founder Henry Dimbleby, said urgent government action is needed in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and described the country's diet as a ‘slow-motion disaster’.

As well as a boost in free school meals, the report has also recommended that poorer youngsters should also be fed during the school holidays.

If adopted, the move could support hundreds more children and their families across the Portsmouth area who struggle to put food on the table.

Mr Dimbleby’s report warned poorer children risk being ‘left behind’, and added: ‘One of the miserable legacies of Covid-19 is likely to be a dramatic increase in unemployment and poverty, and therefore hunger.

‘The effects of hunger on young bodies (and minds) are serious and long-lasting, and exacerbate social inequalities.’

The study proposes an expansion of free school meals in England to every child where a parent is receiving Universal Credit, adding: ‘Children who are hungry at school struggle to concentrate, perform poorly, and have worse attendance records.’

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At present, only children from households earning less than £7,400 before benefits are eligible.

Expanding the programme could reach an additional 1.5m seven to 16-year-olds at a cost of £670m a year.

The news follows previous warning by headteachers in Portsmouth, who feared scores of needy children were left without food over the summer holiday, and food bank leaders.

Today’s report also called for an expansion of the holiday activity and food programme to all areas in England, reaching an extra 1.1m children at a cost of £200m a year.

And it urges an increase in the value of Healthy Start vouchers to £4.25 per week and expansion of the scheme to pregnant woman and households in receipt of Universal Credit with children under four.

The vouchers can be spent on vitamins, fruit, vegetables and milk, and the recommendation would mean an extra 290,000 pregnant women and under-fours would benefit, the study said.

Mr Dimbleby said the chief executives of Waitrose and the Co-Op have already agreed to supplement the vouchers with extra free fruit and vegetables.

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