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An army of parents, teachers and volunteers will mobilise next week to try to ensure that children who rely on free school meals do not go hungry while schools are closed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government has said that low-income families whose children are ordinarily eligible for the meals will be offered vouchers, food or meals, even if they are no longer attending school because of coronavirus closures coming into force from Friday.
Around 1.3 million children in England who come from the most disadvantaged families currently benefit from a free school lunch.
Feeding Britain, an independent charity working to combat hunger and food poverty in the UK, is working with local authorities, schools, caterers and voluntary organisations on contingency planning. In some areas, a core group of schools will aim to offer hot meals for parents to collect and take home, while others will offer a cold food service.
Where schools cannot offer a collection service, food will be transported to a community centre as an alternative collection point. For the most vulnerable families who might not be able to collect their own food, Feeding Britain is trying to initiate a home delivery service.
Proposals are also being developed to include the following day’s breakfast ingredients in food parcels as additional support for struggling families.
Andrew Forsey, national director of Feeding Britain, said he was “very concerned” about the potential impact of school closures on the most vulnerable children, and called on schools to continue to play a prominent role in ensuring children get fed during the crisis.
“Where much of the public concern has been directed towards what will happen to free school lunches, we know that large numbers of children also rely on a school breakfast. When schools do have to close that’s two separate meals a day which they will lose.”
Elsewhere, parents are volunteering to help feed children in need. Agnes Eisenberg, a dentist and mother-of-two whose children go to school in Finchley, north-west London, has offered to help support six families, cooking and delivering two meals a day, twice a week, to children who would ordinarily get free school meals.
“These people need it the most,” she said. “It’s important to give back to society. I can afford it. I’m happy that I can do it.” Elsewhere parents are contributing to food banks in schools and distributing food parcels to those in need.
Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores Academy in Harlow, Essex, has already drawn up plans to provide weekly £25 Tesco vouchers for families whose children rely on free school meals and there will be daily contact with vulnerable children and their families during the course of the closure.
On Thursday, the government confirmed that the total value of vouchers offered to each eligible child per week would exceed the rate it normally pays to schools for free school meals, recognising that families would not be buying food in bulk and equivalent meals could therefore cost more.
The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, said: “No child who would ordinarily receive a free school meal should go without this while their school is closed or while they are having to self-isolate at home.
“By giving headteachers flexibility on how they can get meals or shop vouchers to these children, they can make the most appropriate decisions for families in their communities, and provide immediate reassurance that this important support will continue.”
The Local Government Association, which represents more than 350 English and Welsh councils, said plans were already under way to support children who would ordinarily receive free school meals. “Council staff are doing an amazing job in hugely difficult and fast-moving circumstances to help cope with coronavirus and will continue to do all they can to support residents, including vulnerable children and their families,” a spokesperson said.
Experts in food poverty expressed concern that the government offer was restricted to children on free school meals and there were no plans to support schools who provide the universal infant free school meal available to children up to the age of seven.
Greta Defeyter, a professor in developmental psychology and director of the healthy living lab at Northumbria University, said this should continue, “especially during a time when many families are facing increased hardship and uncertainty”.
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