Why timely guidance and support on Free School Meals is vital

There are so many different aspects of this pandemic that are placing pressure on households, businesses, and services. A huge concern for us - as school caterers and advocates for equal access to good food - is access to healthy food, and the challenges that Covid-19 creates.

The Free School Meal scheme, in ordinary times, allows for many children to access healthy, hot meals that they otherwise may not receive. It’s a cruel reality that families struggle to afford food. For many, this can mean no hot meal at all each day, or parents skipping meals to ensure that their children remain fed.

We already know that these risks present themselves more so in the school holidays, when Free School Meal funding is not available. Children and families with no access to a hot meal is a very real risk, up and down the country. And a pandemic, and the financial crisis that looms, does little to prevent the risk from increasing.

We know, at City Catering, how vital our service is to support access to nutritious meals. It’s why we pride ourselves on our school food standards, and why we do what we can to support holiday provision in our communities.

Our concerns about access to hot meals have been echoed many times by the Headteachers we’ve been working with during this challenging period. During Covid-19, we have been supporting schools individually to ensure that where needed and wanted, groceries are provided to those eligible, to replace a cold lunch. Its not our ideal school meal offer, and our school cooks are keen to get back to serving hot meals for pupils city wide.

Unfortunately, despite schools embarking on a phased reopening, not all are able to serve hot meals. Infection control is, of course, a matter of priority for the whole country right now. We are working flexibly to ensure we can match individual school requirements, and deliver school meals that are manageable and as a low risk as possible. For many (although, not all) this means no access to hot meals in school for the time being. We await further guidance on the widening of the schools reopening, in the hope that a more usual service can resume, when it is safe to do so.

This is why it becomes even more crucial that those eligible for Free School Meals are adequately supported by the Government during this period, and that schools and charities are adequately resourced to ensure that they, in turn, can support the children that need us.

In May, we joined Sustain’s call for Free School Meal funding for the school holidays. You can read our appeal here. Part way through the May half-term, it was confirmed that Government had decided to fund free school meals for the week-long school holiday. Sadly, this came too late for many schools and families to be able to benefit - already away from school, and already part way through a week without the financial support that they needed.

Twice during this pandemic, the Government has pledged to support a vulnerable group of children at risk of hunger and food poverty far too late. It is simply not good enough to pledge support after it’s needed.

Schools need the time and the resource to put that funding to good use.

Families need to know in advance how to budget and prepare for the school holidays.

Children need to know that they are going to have good food.

Charities and community groups need to know what is in place, and crucially what isn’t, so that they can best support their communities.

As we approach the summer school holidays - in less than two months - we are appealing for four things:

1. For the Government to fund Free School Meals during the summer school holidays. And should they not wish to support eligible children, for them to confirm this promptly, so that other means of efficient support can be put into place without delay. You can help support this by signing this powerful petition here: http://chng.it/yknVHgLNpG

2. For us all to raise the need for Free-School-Meal funding during school holidays with your MPs and Councillors. Over 30% of Southampton’s children live in poverty. This is a national concern, existing long before the pandemic, and and issue that’s also not exclusive to those eligible for Free School Meals either - many sit outside its eligibility, but still at risk of food poverty. You can write to your MP or local councillors here: https://www.writetothem.com/
   

3. For those who can afford to, to pledge your support for our summer Lunch Crowd provision this year. We are planning on widening our support, by providing grocery bags together with educational resources to support at-home healthy cooking. We can only do this with your support. Every £15 helps to provide a family with vital groceries. You can donate direct to our Lunch Crowd summer appeal here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/grocerybagproject

4. For those who wish to do more, fundraise for us. We’d really welcome anyone pledging their support to our Lunch Crowd summer appeal, by taking on a challenge, a virtual quiz or a raffle and helping us to raise more! Whatever you fancy doing, just let us know by emailing us. Thank you! Email jessica.clasby-monk@citycateringsouthampton.co.uk

Our Lunch Crowd provision usually involves us opening up our school kitchens for free, to serve delicious hot meals to families in need. Currently, we do not know if this will be possible over the summer holidays - Coronavrius permitting, we will do our best to support the clubs and schools that require it. In the meantime, we are planning a summer Lunch Crowd provision that falls in line with current Covid-19 Government guidelines. We thank you for any support that you can give us.

Thank you, and take care.

Jessica - Charitable Impact Manager, and the team at City Catering

PS: Please do let us know if you hear back from your MP or Councillors - we’d love to hear what support we have for this issue.