Feed the Future is a campaign is led by a coalition of organisations including The Food Foundation, Bite Back 2030, School Food Matters, Child Poverty Action Group, Impact on Urban Health, Chefs in Schools, Jamie Oliver Ltd and Sustain. This coalition is making the case that Free School Meals should be extended to more children.
In a letter to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Health Secretary Gillian Keegan, doctors are urging action to protect children’s health as the nation faces its worst cost of living crisis for generations. Around 800,000 children in families already identified as requiring universal credit to survive are still not getting access to free school meals.
The letter highlights the spiralling number of families struggling to get enough food. Recent evidence published by the Food Foundation showed four million children are now living in households affected by food poverty.
Dr Martin Godfrey, a GP in South London, said: “GPs in central London are increasingly seeing children who are malnourished. In my borough, Lambeth, over 40% of children live in poverty and 20% of children have gone to bed hungry due to lack of food at home.
“We are seeing thin, pale children who lack the energy of a normal child. There isn't much clinically we can do to help other than signpost parents to people and places that can. We all need to do more right now. Extending access to free school meals would make a huge difference.”
A recent report commissioned by Impact on Urban Health from the analysts PWC, estimated that expanding free school meals to primary school children would benefit Britain’s faltering economy with an £8.9 million annual boost in improved productivity and health.
Dr. Chris Van Tulleken, academic and BBC broadcaster, added: "It's an avoidable tragedy that up to 800,000 kids in poverty are sitting in classrooms all over the country too hungry to learn. Ensuring that all children have access to healthy nutritious food is the most basic function of any Government."