Health experts call for free school meals to combat rise in malnutrition

As reported by The Guardian, doctors and nurses report seeing hungry children on a daily basis as they urge government to act

Doctors and nurses have called for a major expansion of free school meals to combat the growing risk of malnutrition, obesity and other health conditions affecting children in low-income families hit by the cost of living crisis.

A letter signed by scores of clinicians and health experts said NHS professionals were seeing the impact of hunger and poor nutrition in their work every day following a recent doubling in food insecurity across the UK.

Extending free school meals would help to address growing evidence of clinical problems among a cohort of children living in poverty who were going hungry, missing out on healthy food and not eating regularly, the letter said.

Nearly 10m adults and 4m children in the UK experienced food insecurity in September as the cost of living crisis deepened, according to the Food Foundation. Millions reported skipping meals or going a whole day without eating, and half said they had cut down on fruit and vegetables.

The letter urges ministers to extend free school meals to an extra 800,000 children on universal credit whose families are in poverty and unable to meet the cost of an adequate lunch but under current criteria are deemed not vulnerable enough to qualify for free meal provision.

In England, all infant schoolchildren are entitled to free school meals from reception to year two, but beyond that only children whose parents earn less than £7,400 a year are eligible. Both the Welsh and Scottish governments are committed to rolling out free school meals to all primary school pupils.

Some schools have described pupil hunger as the biggest single challenge they face this winter, with some having dipped into emergency cash reserves to feed pupils ineligible for free school meals. Teachers have told of desperate children stealing food from fellow students, eating rubbers, and even “pretending to eat out of an empty lunchbox”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:“We have expanded access to free school meals more than any other government in recent decades, which currently reach 1.9m children. We are also investing up to £24m in our National School Breakfast Programme, which provides free breakfasts to children in schools in disadvantaged areas.”