Tom Kerridge is perplexed. “Look, in the past three years, £17million has been spent on subsidising MPs’ meals in the Houses of Parliament — 17 million quid!” he says, his voice tightening. “So we’ve got the MPs eating subsidised lunches and dinners, but we’re not giving free school meals to kids whose parents are on Universal Credit…” The chef shakes his head in bewilderment. “And you know, if you think that’s correct, then we’re at a wrong point in society.”
Sat in his bar and grill at the Corinthia hotel, Kerridge is on rattling form as he explains his support for extending free school meals to all children in poverty, whose plight was exposed by our special investigation and which has led to calls for change by a coalition of campaigning groups led by the Food Foundation. This campaign, called Feed the Future, calls on the Government to extend free school meals to all pupils in England whose parents are on Universal Credit — a move that would help the 800,000 children who, though they live in poverty, are not eligible for a free lunch. “If you qualify for Universal Credit, I’d have thought you qualified for your kids to get a meal,” says Kerridge, shaking his head again. “I was… surprised. It’s like we’ve got a lost generation of 800,000 children, and we know they’re the most vulnerable in society.”
