Dear Editor,
This week marks School Meals Week, acting as a reminder of how important it is that our school children get a healthy meal during the school day.
Since their introduction, universal infant school meals have ensured that thousands more children in London get a nutritious lunch. This is an important step in the right direction – it helps their learning and their health - but children don’t stop needing decent food when they are seven.
With the threshold for free school meals in Year 3 and above unfairly limited to children in families earning less than £7,400 a year under the Universal Credit rules, thousands of young Londoners are not getting the school dinner they deserve.
Poor diet in childhood all too often leads to poor outcomes in later life. The government would help children now and help prevent problems in the future if they extended universal free school meals to all children in state funded schools, starting with primary schools and nurseries.
Hungry children do not learn and children in Bexley deserve better.
Yours,
Fiona Twycross AM
Londonwide Assembly Member