‘Every day, healthcare professionals see the impact of hunger and malnutrition in their work’
Leaders representing more than 150,000 doctors and medical students, and over half a million nurses, midwives, dietitians and support staff have joined the chorus of teachers and poverty campaigners demanding free school meals are immediately offered to thousands more children as part of the ongoing FEED THE FUTURE campaign.
In a letter today [3rd November] to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the education secretary Gillian Keegan, they are urging action to protect children’s health as the nation faces its worst cost of living crisis for generations.
The devasting impact on children is glaringly apparent: ‘Every day, healthcare professionals see the impact of hunger and malnutrition in their work,’ say the group which also includes medical TV personalities Dr Adam Kay, Dr Alex George and Dr Chris van Tulleken, as well as health visitors and academics.
Their letter highlights the spiralling number of families struggling to get enough food - as shown by The Food Foundation’s new evidence that four million children now live in households affected by food poverty.
Most worrying is the fact that 800,000 children in families living in poverty already identified as requiring Universal Credit (or equivalent benefits) to survive, are still not getting access to free school meals.
‘Many of these children have to skip lunch completely or rely on cheap, unhealthy food that is damaging to their long-term health,’ the letter says, pointing out that without good nutrition, rapidly growing children risk obesity with its associated health complications, reduced capacity for academic achievement and lifelong disadvantage in the job market.
‘We urge the UK Government to act now to protect the health of the nation’s children by expanding the Free School Meals scheme to all children in desperate need to guarantee them a hot, nutritious meal at school, for their health, the economy and the NHS.’
The group responsible for the letter which includes the British Medical Association and leaders of the medical and nursing Royal Colleges, also highlights a recent report commissioned by Impact on Urban Health from the analysts PWC, which estimated that expanding free school meals to primary school children would benefit Britain’s faltering economy with an £8.9 million annual boost in improved productivity and health.
‘We believe all children in England should be guaranteed access to the food they need to lead healthy lives,’ the letter concludes.
The Feed the Future campaign is urging people to write to MPs calling for Free School Meals to be offered to all children in homes receiving Universal Credit.