Charlie Simpson, the Ashfield representative on the UK Youth Parliament, has today (Monday) launched a campaign to reform the way free school meals are provided. In a video message, he said the campaign was the realisation of a promise in his election manifesto.
He described the current system as “simply too unfair” and “outdated”, but said that he wasn’t calling for free school meals for every child, acknowledging that some estimates put the cost of that at £4 billion. “It’s too expensive and will cost the taxpayer too much”, he said.
Instead, he is calling for the thresholds and eligibility criteria to be changed so that more children are provided with free school meals. The current situation, he said, “means families and single parents are being forced to miss meals so their kids can have one at school.” He said that changing the thresholds “is a more cost-effective solution and will bring families out of food poverty.”