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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Larry Elliott, Economics editor

It won’t cost much to make free school meals a universal right

a photo from above detailing four pupils and their school meals on blue trays
There are 1.7m children in UK households in receipt of universal credit but ineligible for school meals. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

During the pandemic the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford turned food into a hot political issue in the UK with his campaign for every child in a low-income family to be guaranteed a free school meal.

Since then, things have moved on. The problems facing low-income families – not just in Britain but everywhere – have worsened owing to rising global food prices. Consumers in the western economies have seen the cost of their weekly shop rise sharply. Food bank use in Britain has surged as a result of a cost-of-living crisis that has seen grocery bills rise by almost a fifth in the past year.

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