Celebrities Are Calling On The Government To Provide Free School Meals
Bake Off Judge Prue Leith wants the Government to provide children with free school meals.
Bake Off judge and celebrity chef Prue Leith said no youngster should be forced to skip breakfast – and branded the Government’s lack of action ‘a disgrace’
Prue Leith today led calls for the Government to give every child on Universal Credit a free school breakfast.
The Bake-Off judge and celebrity chef hit out as a survey revealed four million hard-up kids – 39% of the school population – turn up for lessons hungry but just one in five has access to a breakfast club.
Dame Prue – whose son is the Tory MP for Devizes in Wiltshire – branded the Government’s lack of action “a disgrace” and said no youngster should be forced to skip the most important meal of the day.
She also told how trying to save money by not feeding them is just cooking up trouble for the future.
Prue said: “It’s not only a disgrace, it’s a false economy – let’s at least give them a chance of becoming productive citizens one day. I cannot believe government after government don’t see that free school food, at least for anyone on Universal Credit, would be money well spent.”
The Back Off Judge has been backed by fellow celebrity chef Tom Kerridge, who also hit out at Rishi Sunak’s regime.
Michelin-starred Tom, 50, said: “How is it possible in the UK, in 2023, to have a situation as bleak as four million children arriving at school hungry?
“These are our children and our future and it’s an absolute disgrace that the Government isn’t doing more to address this issue. We need to put the pressure on now because the situation could not be any worse.”
There are lots of families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Due to rising bills, there are children all around the UK including Grimsby, Manchester, Lincoln, Hyde, Skegness, Liverpool, Boston, and Scunthorpe who are going to school hungry.
We have previously reported how parents are missing out on meals just so their children can eat properly. But, even when parents are missing meals so their children can have a hot meal, there are still parents unable to afford a breakfast for their children.
Labour’s MP for South Shields Emma Lewell-Buck said the latest figures prove that Tory ministers don’t care about child poverty.
“There is simply no justification and no argument robust enough to deny children a breakfast. The only reason the Government does so is because hungry children never have, and never will, matter to them.”