Voting against free school meals shames Britain | Letters

Readers respond after the government voted against extending free school meals to disadvantaged children during the holidays

Marcus Rashford – a young, gifted, working-class footballer – is proving to be more of a statesman than those currently leading the country (Support grows for Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign, 23 October). The government is missing the point. The free school meals policy was designed to help improve learning outcomes – hungry children tend not to learn as well as they should do. We are now faced with many in our society needing help to feed their families to stay well. The benefits system is unable to do so at the speed required, whereas schools know their communities and are ideally placed to work with other local leaders to get provisions to families who urgently need them. This is clearly the best option.

The government can afford to hand out up to £6,250 a day to test-and-trace consultants for a system that doesn’t work. A week of one of them, compared to the weekly £15 food voucher scheme, would feed more than 2,000 children. Shame on you, Boris Johnson.
Laura Cunningham
London

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/31CAhEy