The number of households with children experiencing food poverty has nearly doubled in the past year, new data shows, affecting almost four million children.
The Food Foundation found 21.6 per cent of households with children said they experienced food poverty in January, affecting an estimated 3.7 million children, compared with 11.6 per cent the same time a year ago.
Among families experiencing food poverty, more than three quarters reported being worried about the impact it has on their children’s physical and mental health.
More than 10,000 adults completed a YouGov survey commissioned by the Food Foundation.
The charity said the cost of living crisis has had a “devastating impact” on children, particularly those in low income households.
“This affects every aspect of their life from education, to their friendships and social development, to their physical and mental health, robbing them of their childhood,” it warned.
The Food Foundation also found that 80 per cent of British people support the expansion of free school meals to all children on Universal Credit. This data was gathered in a national online poll from more than 8,000 respondents.
Pressure is mounting on the Government to make the move amid rising household bills and increased poverty.
There are around 800,000 children across England who do not qualify for free meals despite living in poverty, the charity said.
It claimed that children in England are “being unfairly left behind” because the Government is “failing to take the issue of children’s food insecurity as seriously as the developed Governments”.
The Food Foundation pointed to the fact that Northern Ireland’s income threshold for eligibility for free school meals is almost twice as high as England – £14,000 annual earnings compared with £7,400 in England.
Scotland and Wales are both in the process of rolling out free school meals to all children in primary school regardless of income.
Last week London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that he is expanding free school meals to all children in primary school in London as a one year emergency measure.
The £130 million scheme will fund the 270,000 state primary school children in London who do not already receive free school meals, of whom an estimated 100,000 live in poverty.
The Standard’s School Hunger Special Investigation in which we highlighted the plight of the 210,000 primary and secondary pupils in London who live in households on universal credit but miss out on free school meals – because their household income, excluding benefits, is over the threshold of £7,400 a year.
The Mayor, who has repeatedly called on Government to extend free school meals to all children in poverty, said his scheme will be funded out of higher-than-expected business rates and council tax collections and will be for the 2023/2024 academic year only.
Conservative Assembly Members (AMs) at City Hall said the plan should instead provide targeted support to lower income families across both primary and secondary schools.
Emma Best AM, the Conservatives’ health spokesperson at City Hall, said: “This one-off package has completely missed secondary school pupils, meaning that lower income parents of older children are paying for wealthier families’ younger children. If the Mayor genuinely wants to help the poorest families, he should be focusing on those most in need across all schools.”
Mr Khan responded during a visit to his old primary school in Tooting: “I know though from personal experience, the shame and embarrassment of being labelled a ‘free school meal child’, when the majority of your mates aren’t receiving a free school meal.”
