School meals: Ministers under pressure over holiday lunch funding

Pressure is growing for a rethink on helping children get enough to eat in the half-term school holidays.

The government says enough support is available for families facing hardship and it will not be extending a school meal voucher scheme.

But footballer Marcus Rashford told BBC Breakfast he would not let up in his campaign to change ministers' minds.

And many councils are stepping in to provide free lunch vouchers for low-income families while schools are shut.

Mr Rashford, who forced a government U-turn on free school meal vouchers for eligible pupils over the summer holidays, has been re-tweeting details of cafes and restaurants who have offered to provide meals during the holidays.

Speaking during a visit to a food bank in Manchester with his mother, the England and Manchester United footballer said he didn't mind the criticism he was receiving from some MPs so long as it brought changes.

On Wednesday, MPs voted against a Labour call to make free school meals available outside term time for the next six months, including over the Christmas and Easter holidays.

Several mainly Labour local authorities have decided to take action themselves.

Liverpool Council says it will pay for the daily lunches of 19,800 children in the city during the half-term break, beginning on Monday, while Redbridge, Hammersmith and Southwark councils in London said they would continue to support the 20,000 or so children eligible for free meals during term time.

Greater Manchester's Mayor, Andy Burnham, is offering 1,000 vouchers for children across the region to spend on meals in Co-op stores during half term.

Conservative-controlled Staffordshire County Council is promising a £15 voucher to the families of as many as 18,000 children for food or essential supplies for October half term.

A number of restaurants and cafes across the country have also signalled they will offer free meals to parents in need over the coming week.

A Labour MP, who did not wish to be named, said it was not sustainable for councils to pay for meals over the holidays in the long term and they hoped the government would be "shamed into action".

"Some councils may be unable or unwilling to provide meals for children and it shouldn't be a postcode lottery who gets fed," they told the BBC.

More than 200 children's authors and illustrators - including children's laureate Cressida Cowell, Malorie Blackman, Philip Pullman and Frank Cottrell Boyce - have also called for "organised" financial help from the government.

Their open letter states that "no child in this nation should go hungry this winter" because of the pandemic and no family should have to rely on "pot-luck charity".

Anne Booth, who helped co-ordinate the letter, told the BBC that it was "just denying reality" to suggest that some children were not falling through the cracks.

She said she didn't want her letter to become party political but it was "just basic human decency" that children were fed as they were unable to thrive otherwise.

Government ministers have praised Mr Rashford for highlighting the difficulties facing low-income families, but some Conservative MPs have accused him of "virtue signalling".

The footballer, who received free school meals as a youngster growing up in Manchester, said it would not deter him from speaking out.

"I'll take that all day long as long as we start to see improvements going forward for the people that are in need of it now," he told BBC Breakfast during a visit to FareShare Manchester. "That's what is important to me."

He suggested the tone of some of the comments in Wednesday's debate had been "insensitive" and had come from people who "have definitely not been through it themselves".

"People have opinions. Whether they understood fully what families are going through is another conversation."

Treasury minister Steve Barclay said all measures would be kept under review but emphasised the extra £9bn in support available through the welfare system, including housing allowances and hardship funds for councils.

Downing Street said the government's position was "clear" and there would be "no change" in policy.

Children of all ages living in households on income-related benefits may be eligible for free school meals.

In England, about 1.3 million children claimed free school meals in 2019 - about 15% of state-educated pupils.

Analysis by the Food Foundation estimates a further 900,000 children in England may have sought free school meals since the start of the pandemic.

In Scotland, the government has made £10m available to local councils to continue to fund free school meals over the Christmas, February and Easter breaks. Local authorities that offered provision over the October school break can apply to be reimbursed.

The Welsh government has also pledged to extend free school meal provision to every school holiday until Easter 2021, spending £11m.

In England and Northern Ireland, however, the scheme will only run during term time.