FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
School children everywhere are enjoying their summer break, but some might be enjoying it more than others. It all inevitably comes down to money and we are asking whether government could do more to help low income families over the summer holidays.
As part of our food for thought research we are considering food and its relationship to public policy, and one key relationship is between food and children’s welfare. This is typified by the provision of free school meals for decades. These act as a safety net to children from the most vulnerable households, ensuring that they can receive a free healthy meal for free during term time.
In recent years school meals have received a lot of attention; for example Jamie Oliver’s campaign to improve the quality of ingredients and remove Turkey Twizzlers from school dinners. Government money and support for this followed resulting in nutritional guidance for school meals and more money being spent on the quality of ingredients.
Efforts are clearly focused within schools but how do the 850,000 children from low income families in England who take up the offer of free school meals fare during the six weeks of summer holiday? Feeding school kids over the six week break would cost £46.20 per child in primary school and £48.20 per child in secondary school, money that hard up families would no longer have to fork out. These aren’t vast sums but could make a real difference over the summer months.
So what can be done? As you may have read in today's Mirror or Guardian we suggest that more help could be given during the summer break. Many children go to holiday clubs and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility for the equivalent of free school meals to be provided at these. Could and should government go further to help low income families over the summer, particularly if it is to meet its target to halve child poverty by 2010? Extending free school meal provision is one way we could support poorer families in meeting the ever increasing cost of summer.
