Labour is warning that some families are “in a desperate situation” and is joining calls from the footballer Marcus Rashford for school meals to be provided over the holidays, saying they should continue “while we are in the depths of this crisis”.
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The shadow education secretary Kate Green told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday show that she thought school meals should be provided “right through all the school holidays and half terms this year”.
She said: “Parents are losing jobs because of the Covid crisis and they are really worrying about how they are going to put food on the table for their children. We are talking about people on desperately low incomes who will be really worried about how they are going to feed their kids.
“I pay huge tribute to what Marcus Rashford has done to bring this to public attention, and he did persuade the government they would need to provide school meals over the summer holidays. Labour is calling for that to be continued during this academic year while we are in the depths of this crisis right, through all the school holidays and half terms this year.
“It’s so important that these children get a proper healthy meal. We know families are under huge financial pressure and this would make an enormous difference to them.”
Labour said on Friday that it would give the government 72 hours to extend the provision of free school meals until the Spring - or face a Commons vote. The party warned that a million children could go hungry without an overhaul of free meals.
The call was backed by the Association of School and College Leaders, whose general secretary, Geoff Barton, said the union believed there was a need “to permanently extend free school meal provision for all eligible children”.
He added: “The recognised health and educational benefits of providing meals during term time should surely apply all year-round if we are serious about tackling inequalities.”
Labour’s call follows mounting pressure on the government from a petition launched by the England and Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford, demanding a major expansion of the free school meals scheme.
To date, the petition has gathered over 275,000 supporters.
The Welsh Government has also announced it will extend free school meals over the holidays for children in Wales.
Marcus Rashford was successful in campaigning for free school meal vouchers to be provided to pupils over the summer period.
He had spoken about his own experience of using a food voucher scheme as a child and was praised after pressing the government into making a U-turn on the issue.
