Free school meals: School kids in need to get breakfast in lockdown

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Boy and girl eating cerealImage source, Getty Images

Around 750,000 breakfasts are set to be delivered to children across the UK whose families are struggling to get enough food during lockdown.

Food charity Magic Breakfast usually delivers free breakfasts to schools in need but now that schools are largely shut, it has changed how it helps children.

Instead, breakfast packs are being delivered by Amazon to schools or other drop-off places for school staff to deliver to children's homes or organise for them to be collected by their family.

Food charity Food Foundation says five million people living in households with children have had trouble getting enough food since the start of lockdown.

Some reasons include shops running out of items the families would usually buy, or parents struggling for money because they don't have a job during lockdown.

Under a government scheme, families who normally get free school meals in England should receive vouchers worth £15 a week per child to spend on food in supermarkets.

There have been some delays on people being able to get the vouchers and calls for them to be accepted in a wider range of shops.

A government spokesman said it was "committed to supporting all those affected... through these unprecedented times".