Several personalities are calling on the government to act to expand the distribution of free meals in primary schools. A measure that already exists for 1.9 million children.
With our correspondent in London, Marie Boeda
” Mr Prime Minister, I am writing to you to express my concern “. Singer Zayn Malik, former member of the band One Direction, sent a letter this week to Rishi Sunak.
He asks him to extend access to free meals in schools, since according to the food foundation, an organization that campaigns for food well-being, 800,000 children currently in poverty do not benefit from it. The singer recalls that he himself grew up thanks to this help.
And he’s not the only celebrity to alert the government. Chef Jamie Oliver has been fighting for years. He regularly posts healthy, low-cost recipes on social media for his followers. In the midst of a pandemic, footballer Markus Rashford had called on Boris Johnson to introduce the distribution of free meals even during school holidays.
” I have never seen anything like it”
Economic crisis having impoverished many households, schoolchildren come to class hungry. And some have no hot meals all day. ” I’ve never seen anything like it, testifies the director of a school in the north of Manchester, the increase in the price of food and energy pushes households to make impossible choices between heating or eating “.
The spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats calls on the Prime Minister to copy his Welsh and Scottish neighbors, who have introduced universal free schools.
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