Council demands free school meals for all children in letter to Prime Minister

Free school meals for all children between reception and Year 6 is being demanded in a letter from Wigan Council to the Government.

Coun Jenny Bullen sent the letter to Rishi Sunak after getting her approval from full council. At the meeting on April 12 in Wigan Town Hall’s council chamber, Coun Bullen explained how Wigan is ranked as the 67th most deprived local authority out of the 354 in England.

The portfolio holder for Children and Families told her council peers that children going hungry are unable to learn as effectively.

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“The strongest argument is the very basic fact that children cannot learn well without sustenance,” Coun Bullen told the chamber. “We know that many children go to school without breakfast.

“We also know that many families struggle to provide a decent meal every day because of the rising costs of basic food stuffs and also energy costs, so children are going hungry. This seriously affects their ability to concentrate and reach their full potential. There is no doubt that an empty stomach compromises a child’s ability to learn. It is a well proven fact that children need warm, nutritious meals for their health, well-being and development.”

In order to benefit from free school mals currently, your household income must be less than £7,400 a year, Gov.uk states. Coun Bullen claimed that since the free school meals requirement was put in place in 2018, “food and drink inflation has risen by 13.1 per cent in just one year”.

She believes that Wigan could benefit from a strategy like this given that many neighbourhoods in the area fall into the category of most deprived. There has never been a more important time for something like