The survey also found that 46% of MPs were in favour of extending free school lunches to all primary schoolchildren without means testing. Universal free school meals is already in place at primary level in four London Boroughs including Newham, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Islington.
The YouGov analysis coincides with the publication of another Food Foundation nationwide survey with Childwise of seven to 17-year-olds which exposed ‘distressing evidence’ of children’s experience of food poverty.
The survey found:
- 30.5% said they shared food with friends at school
- More than 20% were hungry and did nit have enough to eat at school
- 10% of children were worried about not having enough food for lunch
- Over 25% had a problem getting enough food over the summer holidays
Evidence of the emerging political consensus on the need to address food poverty was seen at last week’s ‘Feed the Future’ conference in Westminster organised by The Food Foundation and nine other campaigning organisations ahead of the Government budget announcement on Thursday 17th November.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: “Our Childwise survey gives yet more distressing evidence of the suffering caused by food poverty that is increasing by the day.
“It is heartening to see from the YouGov poll, the extent of cross-party support for our free school meals campaign, and from the large number of politicians across the political spectrum who offered support to the Feed the Future event. We cannot just sit back and let children pay a lifelong price for this cost-of-living crisis. Providing more children with free school meals is absolutely essential.”