Unlocking Our Potential With Free School Meals

Dev is a young brown skinned man with a navy blue shirt. He is stood around a table with Maya, who is a young woman with straight blonde-ish hair and Alice, a young woman with curly blonde hair. They are using craft paint and supplies to make protest signs. Alice and Maya are wearing blue aprons over their clothes.

Let’s call on the Secretary of State for Education to provide free school meals to all children who need them.

At Bite Back, we’ve been campaigning for more free school meals for quite some time. We’ve hand-delivered our petition to Downing Street, made noise outside Westminster, and sent Jeremy Hunt over 12,000 emails. But the Government still hasn’t provided free school meals to all children who need them. You have great power to make sure the Government acts.

Right now, there are 900,000 children who are missing out on a hot, nutritious meal — and the wider benefits to their health, wellbeing and educational attainment — because the threshold for free school meals is so low.

Bite Back is an independent charity and does not align its policy positions with any political party.

Email the Secretary of State for Education and tell her to invest in young people by extending access to free school meals

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Dear Secretary of StateI am a supporter of Bite Back 2030 — a youth-led movement working to fix the food system. They are running a campaign calling on the Government to extend free school meals to all children living in poverty — and I think you need to hear what they have to say. Will you meet with the young campaigners from Bite Back?An investment in free school meals is an investment in the futures of children, and an investment in the future of our economy. Free school meals boost physical and mental health, lead to improvements in education attainment and potential earnings. While all primary school children in London can now benefit from free school meals, many secondary school children across the country and primary school children outside of London are still missing out, widening the inequality gap that now exists across the country.Bite Back are not alone — recent polling by <a href="https://www.publicfirst.co.uk/new-polling-for-the-school-food-review-working-grup.html">Public First</a> found 71% of people think the current eligibility threshold is too low, or shouldn’t exist at all. Expanding free school meals is overwhelmingly seen as a good investment in children’s futures with 68% of people supporting extending free school meals immediately to all children receiving universal credit, followed by extending it to all children in the future.I know you care about child health and educational attainment, and ensuring all young people have the opportunity to thrive, whatever their background. Extending free school meals to all children living in poverty is a brilliant way to do just that. Given your role as Secretary of State for Education, I hope you will agree to meet with the young campaigners at Bite Back to learn more about their experiences and why this is such an important campaign.Thank you,

I'd like to receive email updates from Bite Back 2030 on my impact, and on other ways to help all young people access healthy, nutritious food.

From September 2023, all primary school children in London have access to free school meals — brilliant news! Free school meals boost physical and mental health, and improve both education attainment and potential lifetime earnings. They are an investment in our futures, and the future of our economy, and we’re thrilled that those children will enjoy the benefits.

While this is fantastic for primary school children in London, many of us are still missing out. That includes secondary school children in London, and both primary and secondary school children across the rest of the country.

The Secretary of State has the power to change this! While the Chancellor holds the purse strings, the Department of Education is responsible for schools and students. We need them to push for this policy. So, we want the Secretary of State for Education to meet with Bite Back’s young campaigners.

Will you take a moment to email the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, and remind her that investing in free school meals unlocks the potential of young people across the country?