CYP Now - Extend free school meals to 1.5m more children, National Food Strategy says

Up to 1.5 million more children should be given access to free school meals in a bid to tackle growing food poverty in the wake of Covid-19, a major new report recommends.

Schools should provide healthy recipe ideas in food packages, a new report says. Picture: Adobe Stock

In the first part of the new government commissioned National Food Strategy, Henry Dimbleby, author and co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and the Chefs in Schools initiative, warns “in the post-lockdown recession, many more families will struggle to feed themselves adequately”.

“A government that is serious about “levelling up” must ensure that all children get the nutrition they need,” he adds, citing “making sure a generation of our most disadvantaged children do not get left behind” as a main theme of his report.

In what has been billed as the first government commissioned food strategy since the Second World War, Dimbleby calls on the government to extend free school meals to all children, aged seven to 16, with one parent in receipt of universal credit.

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