‘ Expand clubs to feed UK children’
Hague’s school solution to meals crisis
LORD HAGUE has called for Ministers to consider expanding breakfast clubs and summer activities to ensure all children are fed.
Former Conservative leader William Hague says the solution to the school meals row, along with the vast range of other inequalities highlighted by the pandemic, lies in education.
Yorkshire- born Mr Hague said: “Ministers should listen to the ideas of Robert Halfon MP and others, who argue for a major expansion of school breakfast clubs and summer activities, which can raise educational attainment at the same time as keeping children fed.
“Addressing inequality of opportunity through transformative progress in education will be the decisive issue of the years to come. That, above all, is what an argument over free meals in the holidays is telling us.”
His comments came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was planning on giving local councils extra money to fund holiday clubs to solve the free school meals row, according to reports.
The Holiday Activity and Food programme is the brainchild of Henry Dimbleby, the Government’s food tsar and co- founder of the Leon restaurant chain, and was piloted across 17 local authorities over the summer.
According to reports, it would allow children to be given at least one meal a day outside of school time, and could be combined with extra study time to help pupils catch up on missed education.
It is too late for the scheme to be implemented over half- term, but it has been reported that Mr Johnson was considering putting it in place for the Christmas holidays.
The Government is facing mounting public anger at its refusal to extend free school meals into half- term and beyond following a campaign spearheaded by England footballer Marcus Rashford.
However, Dr Robert Winston, a Labour peer who became a household name through his documentaries on child development, has warned Mr Johnson that Dimbleby’s plans did not go far enough.
He said he had read the report “from cover to cover” and added: “It doesn’t remotely cover the problem.”
Dr Winston said poor nutrition led to “a rise in depression and decrease in cognitive ability – you can’t learn when you’re starving”.
An online petition started by Manchester United star Rashford for free meals to be extended in England over the school holidays
A rise in depression and decrease in cognitive ability. Dr Robert Winston on the consequences of poor nutrition.
was nearing one million signatures on Monday evening.
Businesses, community groups and councils – including some Tory- run administrations – have answered his call and provided thousands of free meals for children as schools in large parts
of England began their October break.
The Prime Minister insisted on Monday that the Government would not allow children to go hungry.
Mr Johnson highlighted the money given to councils and said
Universal Credit was “one of the best ways you can help families in this tough time”.
Universal Credit had been increased by £ 20 a week while £ 63m was announced in June by Ministers to help local authorities feed vulnerable families.