Government u-turns on free summer school meals

In a win for families across the UK, the government has agreed to fund school meals over the six-week summer holidays, to make sure that no child goes hungry.

The campaign to extend free school meals over the summer was led by the School Food Plan, an alliance of organisations that UNISON is part of. Footballer Marcus Rashford has become a recent champion of the campaign and pushed the government to extend its funding.

Before lockdown, 1.3 million children were eligible for free school meals. Now, with unemployment growing, even more families are reliant on financial support to make sure their children don’t go hungry.

In lockdown, many schools have used a supermarket voucher system to provide families with the funds they need to feed their children. These funds were available to families over the Easter holidays and recent half term, but the government planned to stop them before the summer holidays.

After an urgent appeal from Mr Rashford yesterday, the government has today released an additional £120m into a one-off “COVID summer food fund”.

It’s thought parents will be offered a one-off voucher to cover all six weeks of the summer holiday, worth £15 per week per child.

UNISON head of education Jon Richards said: “As the union that represents school meals workers, we have been fighting for many years to ensure that no child goes hungry.

“We have been campaigning with our partners and welcome the announcement by Boris Johnson today that he will, after all, fund free school meals for all eligible children over the summer holidays. It is the right thing to do.

“Marcus Rashford’s moving personal story and intervention helped the campaign so much and shows all of us how the school food service makes such a difference to so many.”

The article Government u-turns on free summer school meals first appeared on the UNISON National site.

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