Lunch Lockdown
School is a place where we go to learn, make friends and take part in activities. For some students, school is a place where they are able to eat a meal. In January 2020, around 1.4 million children (17.3% of students) qualified for free school meals in England.
Due to poverty, many families are not able to afford lunch for their children; leading to concerns about students being malnourished and too hungry to concentrate at school. Access to free school meals has helped to tackle health inequalities, and to improve health issues such as obesity due to their healthy ingredients. Additionally, there has been a large improvement in the academic achievement for pupils living in poverty.
Due to the COVID lockdown, schools have been closed, so changes have been made in order to continue this program. Children who were eligible for free school meals are still able to receive them in a food voucher or parcel. However, concerns have heightened about the standard of the food parcels; Gavin Williamson, Education Secretary, said he was “absolutely disgusted.” Images of these food parcels that were provided to students were posted on social media.
What food parcels are supposed to contain
A school is supposed to provide food for students during the COVID lockdown if they normally qualify for free school meals. Children at home during the lockdown are supposed to receive food parcels or vouchers from schools during term, with food parcels being the recommended option. Schools are also able to consider other arrangements such as shop/supermarket vouchers if they are unable to provide food parcels. Schools receive their usual funding for free school meals during term, with an extra £3.50 per week per student. They are also able to later claim up to £15 weekly per pupil for the vouchers, in addition to their free school meals.
The government stated that the food parcels should contain food items instead of pre-prepared meals, not rely on extra home ingredients, cater for special diets (allergies, vegetarian, religious), and contain items which parents can use to prepare healthy lunches throughout the week.
However, Twitter posts circulated showing the lack of worth and nutrition within these food parcels, showing that they were not sufficient for the week and that they “simply do not meet the standard.”
Photos began circulating on Twitter; some food parcels only consisted of carrots, two potatoes, baked beans and few other items. Chartwells, the foodservice company who was distributing these meal packages, had stated that the parcels should last for five days instead of ten days.
The department for education website also states that meal vouchers should be “£15 per eligible pupil, per week” and that schools are able to be reimbursed for this amount. However, the value of the photo above is worth around £5. One mother commented that her son’s package was missing vegetables, beans and a loaf of bread.
Another parent described her parcel as containing "five baps, a small tin of tuna, a small block of cheese, six small juices, five apples and a pack of biscuits.”
Marcus Rashford, footballer and school meals campaigner, describes the school meal parcels as “not good enough” and “unacceptable.” He has highlighted the poor quality of food parcels and has also campaigned free school meal plans to be provided over the holidays, after MPs had voted against this.
Health issues
In order to grow, live and learn, children (and adults) need to eat food from groups of protein, fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy. Schoolchildren receiving free school meals are not obtaining enough nutrition from their food, which can lead to decreased concentration and a lack of growth. A primary school principal has also warned that some schoolchildren may suffer from “malnutrition” due to the lack of nutritious school meal replacement. Even for students not receiving the food packages, fulfilling nutrition requirements can be an issue as parents with lower incomes or busy work schedules are more likely to cook with cheaper food options, which often are unhealthy.
Poor nutrition can lead to stress and tiredness, and for a student who is studying, this will decrease their academic performance. As some of these students are also in their developmental years of primary school, this poses as a larger issue for their futures. Malnutrition can lead to health issues such as stunted growth, diabetes and heart disease. The Barker hypothesis proposes that low nutrition in children increases the susceptibility to other health complications later in life such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. It also proposes that lower birth weight is associated with a greater risk of coronary heart disease during middle age.
The English government had initially stated that they wouldn’t provide parcels/vouchers over the half term in February. However, as a result of a million people signing Rashford’s petition, the UK government has provided a winter food grant of £170 million to help families in need of essentials.
Although this has helped many families, this issue highlights what the government response would have been if Rashford or other members hadn’t chosen to campaign and get involved. Would there have been children left without food across the UK? Poverty and malnutrition are prevalent issues throughout the world and in the UK. Children require a healthy balanced diet, irrespective of the family’s income, and issues like this need to be addressed in order to provide solutions.
