New data from the Food Foundation, released as part of the joint #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign with Marcus Rashford, reveals an extremely high demand for Free School Meals this Autumn.
The data, acquired through a sample survey conducted by Childwise shows that 29% (equivalent to 2.2 million children) of children aged 8-17 are registered for Free School Meals, with an astounding 42% of these children newly registered to the scheme.
64% of the newly registered children are from households where the main earners report being in higher income occupations compared to 36% from lower income occupations.
This massive increase in demand shows the hard-hitting socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, with survey data gathered in August revealing that 32% of households with children have experienced a drop in income since late March .
This demonstrates how far reaching the impact of the crisis has been for families, with redundancies, loss of income and furlough affecting millions of parents says the thinktank
Despite this major spike in demand, schools are struggling to provide hot lunches, with only 32% of all children aged 8-17 saying they were eating hot meals from the canteen, and shockingly 3% of children (180,000) saying they skipped lunch entirely.
A hot school lunch provides vital sustenance for disadvantaged children, with many relying on it as their main meal in the day.
Low uptake of school meals by children who pay is likely to also be hampering canteens getting back to normal with hot meal provision. Overall, half of children reported taking packed lunches. Less than half of children reported that their canteens were running as usual with social distancing. 8% of children reported their canteens were closed. 10% of children said most children have been asked to bring a packed lunch. 21% said canteens were only serving a small number of pupils.
Research from the University of Leeds has shown that less than 2% of packed lunches meet nutritional standards
Marcus Rashford, England International Footballer said “The numbers recorded here just reinforce the need for urgency in stabilising households. This is a pandemic that could leave longer-term devastation than Covid-19. We must act now to protect the next generation and the most vulnerable across the UK”
Emma Thompson, Ambassador Children’s Right2Food Campaign said
“In the sixth richest economy in the world these figures speak for themselves. There is absolutely no need for any child to go hungry in the UK. The fact that they are and in increasing numbers suggests cracks in a broken food system that can and must be repaired as a matter of the utmost urgency. Apart from the moral duty we owe to children, this is a severe public health problem.”
Anna Taylor, Executive Director of Food Foundation said “A hot school lunch should provide vital sustenance for vulnerable children. Too many children are missing out because their families can’t afford it. Many more are missing out because canteens are not yet fully operational due to Covid-19.
Addressing both should be a top priority for the Government or the divide between children from wealthy and economically disadvantaged families will widen even further, leaving permanent impacts on children’s lives.”
