Free school meals: Supermarkets join with teachers to back Jamie Oliver campaign

Teaching organisations and major supermarkets in the UK are backing a campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, asking for all children in households on universal credit to be given free school meals.

Universal credit is a payment given by the government to some people to help them with their living costs.

They have sent letters to the prime minister, calling for the rule change which they say would help 800,000 of the "most vulnerable" children.

In October the leaders of 12 teaching unions signed, along with other groups who say that altogether they represent a million teaching staff, governors and school trustees across the UK.

In the letter they told the prime minister, the chancellor and the education secretary that "hunger is now a real issue in our schools" and "too many families" not currently eligible for free school meals are struggling to afford them.

Iceland, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Aldi, Co-op, Waitrose, Asda and Morrisons have now also written to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, asking for the same thing.

The price of food in supermarkets has been going up in recent months

They said in the letter: "As food retailers, we witness first-hand the daily struggles our customers face to feed their families.

"We are committed to doing all we can to support them, with several actions set to be implemented in the coming months, but we cannot do this alone."

The letter is supported by the Feed the Future campaign, which is a group led by food-poverty organisations such as the Food Foundation, and campaigners, including Mr Oliver.

The campaigner argue that giving more children access to free school meals is needed "as an immediate first step", and that not doing so "would undermine all the great efforts of the education workforce to tackle inequalities".

Jamie Oliver has long campaigned for children to be able to access healthier choices and for more children to be able to receive schools meals.

The chef said he believed that investing in free school meals for children would help the economy in the longer term.

"The reality is, if you speak to the best minds in economics, in the country, in the world, they will tell you that if you output healthier kids, you're going to have a more productive, more profitable country.

The celebrity chef launched this latest campaign after Prime Minister Liz Truss suggested she would scrap plans for a ban on shops selling multi-buy deals on junk food.

He told the BBC he was "up for the fight" with the government to improve children's health.

The campaign comes as government departments prepare for spending cuts.

From September, the first primary school children in Wales will begin receiving free school dinners

What has the government said so far?

The government has said it had already expanded access to free school meals more than any other in recent decades.

It has previously said expanding this more wouldn't be possible and warned that the Feed the Future campaign has under-estimated the cost of expanding the scheme.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton has backed previously free meal campaigns and took on the government to support footballer Marcus Rashford's call to extend free school meals during Covid.

But he said he could not support this latest campaign because it was "not the best use of scarce resources".

A government official told BBC News: "We understand that families are facing cost pressures due to international events driving up inflation and global energy prices. This is why we are providing over £37bn to help households with the greatest need.

"We have also expanded access to free school meals more than any other government in recent decades, which currently reaches 1.9 million children, and our national school breakfast programme supports schools by providing free breakfasts to children in schools in disadvantaged areas."

Who is eligible for free school meals in England?

Currently about 1.9 million children in England are able to get free school meals, which the government says is 22.5% of all pupils.

That represents a 9% increase from 2021, when 1.74 million pupils were able to have them.

Another 1.25 million pupils receive free meals under another rule which says that all infant state school pupils (Reception to Y2) can have free school meals during term time - regardless of household income.

What do you like to eat in school?

In England and Wales, children aged 4 to 16 are eligible for free school meals if they live in a household which gets income-related benefits (such as universal credit) and has an annual income of less than £7,400 after tax, not including welfare payments.

About 40% of people who claim universal credit already have jobs and may earn more than this.

This is one reason why the government have said universal credit is not a good way to decide what households need more support.

Health and Social Care Secretary Therese Coffey has argued that if all children from families on universal credit were allowed to have free school meals, "taxpayers may be surprised to learn that somebody on £35,000 or £40,000 would all of a sudden be eligible".

She had said it's more important that support for struggling families was "targeted" to those who need it the most.

What about the rest of the UK?

In Northern Ireland, children whose family earns less than £14,000 are entitled to free school meals.

In reality that means around 100,000 children in Northern Ireland receive free school meals - around 30% of the total school population.

A number of schools there have decided to offer more pupils free meals in response to rises in the cost of living, which schools now offering free breakfasts to all pupils and some are offering hot dinners to more pupils.

Scotland's free school meal programme covers pupils in P1 - P5, which is around 100,000 children,

An extra 80,265 primary and secondary pupils (12%) qualify due to their household income.

The Welsh government will provide free school meals for all primary school pupils by 2024, beginning with Reception pupils this September.