Parents braced for the back-to-school rush have an extra problem on their plate this year, with the cost of a packed lunch rising by almost three times the UK rate of headline inflation.
A typical packed lunch, made up of a sandwich, an apple and a small yoghurt, costs £2.17 – 32p more a serving than a year ago and equivalent to £61 more over the course of the school year than last year, an 18% rise. That is £105 more a child for each school year than in 2018-19.
