"No new help for low-income families": Greater Manchester poverty group slams government food strategy

The government's recently announced 'food strategy' offers 'no new help for low-income families', Greater Manchester's Poverty Action Group have said. This was after plans to extend free school meals to up to a million more poor kids were shelved in plans published today.

A Food Strategy White Paper was unveiled today, but has come under criticism over recent days after being leaked to The Guardian. This was after a string of suggestions from the government's food tsar Henry Dimbleby were dropped.

This included suggestions from the Leon founder that free school meals should be extended to all children in households with Universal Credit. This will instead be 'kept under review'.

Dimbleby also recommended taxes on sugar and salt products which would fund healthier foods for those in poverty. But this was also dropped by the government after criticism of this idea from many Conservative MPs.

The Food Strategy has now been criticised by Greater Manchester's Poverty Action (GMPA) group, who believe this strategy does little for low-income families, especially as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite. They recently released their 'Poverty Monitor' report which outlined that more children in the city-region are being pushed into poverty, with urgent government intervention needed to address this.

The Food Strategy would have been an opportunity to address this, GMPA say, but falls short of offering new support for low income families and children. Their Poverty Monitor report outlined that one in four children in Greater Manchester are living in poverty, while the number of food help organisations has doubled in the last five years.

The white paper publication states that they want to 'spark a school food revolution' but