Education leaders back Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign

Rashford has already successfully campaigned for free school meals to be extended over Easter and the summer break, and is now calling on the government to feed vulnerable children during school holidays until the end of the year.

His parliamentary petition has already achieved 280,000 signatures since Wednesday last week.

The Manchester United and England forward is also asking for free school meals to be extended to all under-16s where a parent or guardian is in receipt of Universal Credit or equivalent benefits and for the the value of Healthy Start vouchers, for new parents to spend on milk, formula and food basics, to at least £4.25 per week, and expand the scheme.

However, the government has already rejected his plea.

But the general secretaries of the leading headteachers unions, the National Governance Association and 17 leaders of the largest multi academy trusts (representing 400 schools) have joined forces to urge the government to act on the issue.

• Bridging the social mobility gap

• Coping with pandemic lockdowns

The letter has been sent to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The education leaders are asking for government to support vulnerable children by implementing recommendations from the government-commissioned National Food Strategy:

• Expansion of free school meals to every child from a household on Universal Credit or equivalent, reaching an additional 1.5m seven- to 16-year-olds

• Expansion of holiday provision (food and activities) to support all children on free school meals, reaching an additional 1.1m children

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Schools are working incredibly hard to help children catch-up with lost learning amidst ongoing disruption caused by rising Covid infection rates, and the pupils who need the greatest degree of support are often those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"To then have a situation where they are potentially going hungry through holiday periods is very obviously detrimental to both their welfare and educational progress.”

Dr Jenny Blunden, chief executive of Truro and Penwith Academy Trust, added: “Here in Cornwall, we know that many of our families are experiencing very real economic problems due to reduced incomes. Some of our schools are seeing significant increases in the proportion of children eligible for Free School Meals, in one school this has been from 14.9 per cent in March to 24.1 per cent on return to school this September.

"We know how important it is to ensure our catering services are providing healthy meals to children and we wish to highlight the food poverty which will continue during the holiday periods and to extend this concern to our many more families living in poverty but who are not currently eligible for free school meals.”

Steve Taylor, chief executive of Cabot Learning Federation, said: “Learning takes energy and requires a child to be physically and mentally prepared: a hungry child is neither. At a time when more families are experiencing new hardships, children are relying on us to advocate for them. A quality daily lunch now will reap significant benefits later.”

Last week data, acquired through a survey conducted by Childwise, showed that 29 per cent (2.2 million) of children aged between eight and 16 reported being registered for free school meals, with 42 per cent (900,000) being newly registered to the scheme this autumn.