Last week education leaders sent a letter to chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, demanding free school meals are offered to all children in families receiving universal credit or equivalent benefits.
Shreeve: Worsening hunger crisis damaging children’s prospects
Peter Shreeve, Assistant District Secretary of the National Education Union – who is based on the Isle of Wight – commented,
“The impact of hunger on children is clear. Indeed, this ‘urgent need’ was recognised by the Isle of Wight council last month, when it decided to provide a £15 voucher to every child in receipt of FSM (Free School Meals) to be spent in local supermarkets over this half-term. This benefits 3,895 Island children.
“Research repeatedly shows a good diet in childhood improves concentration and behaviour in lessons, school attendance as well long-term children’s health, academic performance and their lifetime productivity. This is why support needs to be widened.
“The signatories representing over a million people working within education as teachers, leaders, support staff, governors and trustees are all well-placed witnesses to the benefits of a regular quality school meal. Hunger can have devastating consequences and teachers say the worsening hunger crisis is damaging children’s prospects.”
Chiverton: Essential that FSM eligibility be expanded
Mark Chiverton, Secretary – UNISON Isle of Wight Local Government Branch, said,
“The accelerating cost of living crisis is having a massive impact on poorer families and their children. Yet again, the Tory Government seems completely impervious to the growing representations from prominent individuals and campaigning organisations, including the Food Foundation, about the need to extend free school meals provision.
“It’s essential that, as a minimum immediate first step, free school meals eligibility needs to be expanded to include children from all families receiving Universal Credit (or an equivalent benefit). With price inflation now running at a rate which we haven’t seen for decades, more and more families are struggling to afford school meals.
“Without urgent action, there’s a growing danger that many children will be inadequately nourished with significant risks to their health and wellbeing. The situation also poses massive potential problems for their academic performance as, without at least one nutritious hot meal a day, children’s concentration and behaviour will inevitably be negatively affected.
“It’s imperative that this further threat to educational opportunity and equality is addressed by the Government without delay.”
Shreeve: A quick, effective and highly targeted way of delivering on the levelling up agenda
Mr Shreeve went on to add,
“In Finland all pupils receive free school meals. These not only provide nutrition, but promote wider educational and social development, good manners and an appreciation of food. This contributes to Finland consistently achieving well in comparison to other educational systems in other countries.
“Only 20 years ago Estonia introduced free school meals and in the last PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study, it achieved some of the best results, particularly in maths and reading.
“The letter states the expansion of the free school meal eligibility criteria ‘is a quick, effective and highly targeted way of delivering on the levelling up agenda and will support schools in delivering vital educational outcomes for all children’. The recent Estonian experience and the historic Finnish one not only supports this expansion, but indicates an even wider expansion would be immensely beneficial.”
