Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi are among the major supermarkets who have co-signed a letter from Jamie Oliver and Tom Kerridge urging the government to extend free school meals across England.
The letter – which is also undersigned by Iceland, Lidl, The Co-op, Waitrose and Morrisons – is addressed to education secretary, Gillian Keegan and calls for a commitment to expand the provision of Free School Meals in this Thursday’s budget.
The supermarkets are among those backing the Feed the Future campaign from the Food Foundation, which is working to ensure all children from families that receive Universal Credit are included in the school meals scheme.
Currently – and despite living below the poverty line around 800,000 children do not qualify for the scheme.
“In the coming months, food insecurity in the UK will inevitably rise,” the letter reads.
“Increasing energy bills will place pressure on household budgets and limit funds available for food. Simultaneously, external pressures are causing everyday groceries to rise in price. Many families are approaching breaking point.”
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“As food retailers, we witness first-hand the daily struggles our customers face to feed their families. We are committed to doing all we can to support them – with several actions set to be implemented in the coming months – but we cannot do this alone.
“For this reason, we call on the Government to do more to protect children and ease the burden on struggling parents.
“We encourage you to use the Budget announcement on 17 November to commit to expand free school meals to all children from families in England that receive Universal Credit as a first step to universal provision, so no child has to go through the school day hungry.”
This news comes as Zayn Malik – newly-named ambassador for The Food Foundation – has also written an open letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak pleading for immediate action on free school meals.
1 Comment. Leave new
Happy for the Government to do this, also to impose an additional 20 corporation tax on the supermarket profits to fund it. Seems fair.