Hollywood star Kate Winslet has urged the Government to provide free school meals to all children whose families cannot afford them.
The Titanic actress, 47, was adding her voice to similar calls by the Mirror and the National Education Union, who say all primary-age kids should get free dinners.
Campaigners say such a move would end child hunger and help boost children’s life chances.
Under the current system, all children in England can get free school meals up to the end of Year 2. But after that they only qualify if their household claims certain benefits.
Pupils in Universal Credit families are only eligible if their parents earn less than £7,400 a year from work.
Around 800,000 kids living in poverty in England miss out on free dinners due to strict eligibility rules, says the Child Poverty Action Group.
Mum-of-three Winslet called for wider free school meal provision after telling how she recently donated £17,000 to a woman who feared her disabled child would go into care because the mother could not afford electricity bills.
The actress said she was inspired to help because she had “always been really cut in half by the plight of the individual”.
She added to BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “There seems to be very little support for individuals whose situations are extreme, are different.”
She added: “You can’t categorise them, you can’t tick a box, you can’t say, ‘Oh well you’re not eligible for school meals’.
“This is ridiculous, if you can’t afford to pay for your child’s school meals someone else should be paying for it, don’t let the child go hungry.”
She spoke from experience, as she added: “These things matter. I was a free school meals kid – myself and all my siblings, we were free school meals children.”
Her comments come as more than 31,000 people had last night signed a 38 Degrees petition urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to extend free school meals to all primary school-age children.
In a poll for the Sutton Trust by TeacherTapp, 52% of teachers reported more needy pupils going hungry as they did not meet strict eligibility rules for free school meals.
The Department for Education said last month a third of pupils in England get free school meals.
It said it was investing up to £24million in a school breakfast scheme and that eight million households would get £1,200 cost of living support this year.
