Children Do Not Stop Being Hungry From 11 Years Old, Labour Must Extend Free School Meals

During this cost-of-living emergency the council must provide radical solutions to help residents who are choosing between eating and heating.

That is why the Southwark Liberal Democrats have put forward a motion for next week’s council assembly that will force the Labour council to provide free school meals to all pupils, including at secondary schools.

One in four households with children faced food insecurity, according to The Food Foundation in October. More and more Southwark residents are struggling.

The Trussell Trust, Britain’s largest food bank network, reported recently that 1.3 million emergency food parcels were handed out in just over six months.

The charity warned that food banks were at “breaking point”, with almost half a million of these parcels given to children.

Many in our younger generations are clearly suffering in this crisis.

National Lib Dem analysis found that over 100,000 English children may be missing out on free school meals as income eligibility criteria has not moved with inflation.

The Guardian reported on teachers saying that children not eligible for free school meals are disgracefully having mouldy bread, empty wraps, or nothing at all for lunch.

That is unacceptable.

In Southwark, our council rightly provides free school meals for all primary and nursery pupils. I strongly believe this support is vital. 

But, children in our borough lose this help from the age of 11 and instead only receive free meals on a means-tested basis in secondary school.

Why should we strip our children of this help, as they grow older?

In March, all Southwark councillors voted to support the Right to Food campaign.

In July, the Southwark Liberal Democrats proposed a radical package of cost-of-living policies that included providing free meals universally to secondary school children over the summer.

At the last council assembly a Labour councillor responded by admitting that her party’s universal free primary school meals policy was no longer as radical as it once was.

She said it was a 2010 policy for challenges in 2010.

This former cabinet member for schools agreed with us that the council must now go further and said it should investigate extending free meals in secondary schools too.

It is time Southwark’s Labour administration caught up and listened to this cross-party consensus.

In October, the council leader tweeted that the government should offer universal free primary school meals nationally.

He called free meals for all primary school children “common sense”.

It stands to follow that universal free secondary school meals is common sense too.

Children do not stop being hungry when they reach the age of 11.

And what better way is there for this council to show the nation how radical it should be then by going a step further in adopting this 2022 policy to meet 2022 challenges?

We believe Labour should not only stop there.

It should also look at the adults who are struggling to feed themselves.

That is why our motion calls for emergency funding for any organisation delivering food to the vulnerable.

It asks for a restoration of the council’s meals on wheels programme, which delivered to vulnerable and older people’s homes before it was cut in 2017.

And it pushes Southwark to distribute slow cookers to vulnerable residents, so that they can cook healthy meals in a cost-efficient way.

We want hot meals for every household.

Because in a cost-of-living emergency anything short of a radical solution is not good enough.

This motion gives Labour councillors a chance next week to implement the policies that these times demand.

I hope they vote using their common sense.