The Food Foundation led the End Child Food Poverty Coalition, a group of more than 30 third sector organisations supporting the call from Marcus Rashford for the Government to improve the diets and food access of children in low-income families.
We were also part of the End Child Food Poverty Taskforce, a group of businesses led by Marcus who dedicated their platforms to sharing real stories of those most affected by child food insecurity in the UK, supported by real-time statistics.
Both the Coalition and Taskforce campaigned to see the Chancellor’s October 2021 Spending Review provide sufficient funds to guarantee that every child in England at risk of going hungry gets some good food every day by supporting three recommendations in the National Food Strategy.
Achievements of the campaign
“You can fill 27 Wembley stadiums with the 2.5 million children that are struggling to know where their next meal might be coming from today”
Footballer and activist Marcus Rashford
What we need next
900 000 children living in poverty in England are missing out on a free school meal due to a restrictive income threshold. As a first step the threshold should be raised to include all households in receipt of universal credit.
Many children from very low-income families are missing out on a hot, nutritious meal that they are eligible for, due to a complex and cumbersome application process. Automatically enrolling children who are eligible is possible, and benefits schools through additional Pupil Premium funding.
The Healthy Start scheme ensures pregnant people, babies and children under 4 on low incomes can access fresh fruit and vegetables, vitamins through weekly payments. The scheme needs to be extended to include four year olds, with payments brought in line with inflation.
Eligible families are missing out on this critical nutritional safety net. An opt-out rather than opt-in approach would ensure that all families who are eligible can access the scheme and prevent children living in poverty from missing out.
The Holiday Activities and Food programme is a crucial provision to prevent holiday hunger. The programme should be enshrined in law so that families at risk of food insecurity continue to receive this support.
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