Sue Robb of 4Children talks to Julie Laughton and Alison Britton from the Department for Education about the role of childminders in delivering the 30 hours free entitlement.
A government-commissioned review into food and healthy eating has concluded that the free school meals offering should be extended to a further 1.5 million children in England.
The National Food Strategy warns of the toxic connection between child poverty, poor diet and hunger and labels the country’s eating habits as a ‘slow-motion disaster’.
The review calls for many more children to be immediately eligible for a free meal at school, as ‘only one per cent of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards of a school meal’. The 1.5 million children figure would be in addition to the 1.3 million already eligible - so almost one in three children would get free meals.
Any extension of free school meals, at a cost of £670 million per year, would expand eligibility to all children in households where the parent or guardian is claiming universal credit or equivalent benefits.
Led by the Leon restaurant co-founder Henry Dimbleby, the strategy also claims that the climate crisis will be the source of the next food emergency, whilst condemning faux-healthy food labelling by big brands - including the idea of ‘healthy’ Marks & Spencer Percy Pig sweets. Dimbleby also suggested that £2 billion should be made available for farmers to improve the countryside.
The report is a wide-ranging examination of the country’s food system, from the dominance of supermarkets and the post-Brexit food supply, to the state of dieting and the rise in food banks. Its publication follows the launch of a government anti-obesity strategy that was criticised for putting responsibility on the shoulders of individuals instead of tackling structural inequalities.
Sue Robb of 4Children talks to Julie Laughton and Alison Britton from the Department for Education about the role of childminders in delivering the 30 hours free entitlement.
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