Southwark Council has reaffirmed its call for free school meals to be given to every single child in England.
Deputy Leader Cllr Jasmine Ali has signed an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warning: “When children are hungry, they can’t learn.”
The council has given free school meals to all primary school pupils since 2013 and recently started giving more needs-based free school meals to secondary school pupils.
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Cllr Ali said: “Southwark Council has been providing universal free school meals for all primary school children for longer than a decade.
“In that time our schools have gone from joint bottom to 97 per cent Ofsted rated good or outstanding. Free, healthy school meals has played an important part of our school improvement success.”
Currently, children across England only get free school meals for the first three years of school.
In 2020, Scotland pledged to extend free school meals to every child in primary education. This year, Wales followed suit.
The open letter, signed by 240 community organisations, 90 MPs, peers, local councils and mayors, said: “Free school meals for every child will put money back in parents’ pockets.
“That’s money they can use to pay for other essentials for their children, from heating and food at home to hobbies and after-school clubs.
“Teachers and support staff see the difference a healthy school dinner makes. When children are hungry, they can’t learn.
“It’s hard for them to concentrate and harder for them to reach their potential.”
Council to set up free schools meals scheme for secondary school pupils
Earlier this year, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the Greater London Authority (GLA) would fund universal free school meals for primary school pupils across London.
This left Southwark with approximately £3.2 million spare cash which has gone towards feeding more disadvantaged secondary school pupils.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, “there is a fairly strong evidence base suggesting that children who receive free school meals benefit academically”.
However, Vic Goddard, CEO of Passmores Co-operative Learning Community Trust told the Guardian universal free school meals mean “spending money on food for some affluent families”.
“That is not the best use of that money, which should be spent on our most vulnerable children,” he said.