A plea to the Government to fund Free School Meals and holiday provision this summer
Today, I posted a letter to Rt Hon. Gavin Williamson MP, Secretary of State for Education and Vicky Ford, MP, Minister for Schools in support of the call from Sustain for the Government to fund Free School Meals during the summer holiday. This need has long been present, but the current climate of Covid-19, rising unemployment, and extended furlough schemes only make this need greater for our communities - and the youngest within it.
You can read the letter below. To add you name and organisation to the online signatories, please email us.
Meanwhile, we are working hard at City Catering to secure funding to extend our Lunch Crowd provision during the summer holidays so that we can ensure more families are able to access safe, healthy food. To support our funding for this, you can donate direct to this specific cause, here.
The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP, Secretary of State for Education
Vicky Ford MP, Minister of State for Schools
cc:
Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Southampton Test
Royston Smith MP, Southampton Itchen
Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, Romsey & Southampton North
Dear Sir or Madam,
We write to formally express our support for the enclosed letter from Sustain – a letter that we have gladly signed alongside many of our industry and charitable community peers.
As a charity that serves 1.8m school meals a year, we advocate for good nutrition for all. The benefits of a nourishing meal are far reaching. The current pandemic has served to highlight the crucial role that affordable, safe, and easy access to good food has on our society; that access needs to be protected.
As founders and facilitators of the ‘Holiday Provision Steering Group’ in Southampton (funded by Vivid Homes and administered by the Hampshire and IOW Community Foundation), we collectively work to improve access to holiday provision in the area. Southampton ranks 55th out of 317 constituencies for deprivation, with 33% of children living in poverty. This results in key outcomes for children and young people being below the national average. In January 2019, 21.9% of Southampton pupils (in state funded schools) were known to be eligible and claiming for Free School Meals (FSM) - a stark contrast with 15.4% in England overall.
We have witnessed the challenges presented by the roll out of the National Voucher Scheme for Free School Meals. We welcomed the Government’s early assurances that schools (and those who support them) would be able to continue to uphold the Government’s obligation to support those eligible for FSM. We also welcomed the support offered for those families with no recourse to public funds - a long overdue recognition of the challenges this group may face.
However, we and many other organisations fully recognise the impact that the school holidays have on families at risk of food poverty, even in normal circumstances. Whether supported by Free School Meals or not, many families face additional challenges in the school holidays; a gap in support from the Government that has long be filled by charities, schools, and other supporting services. This is (and will continue to be) heightened when the country is facing such enormous challenges.
The DfE’s funding in the past two years for piloted summer holiday provision has of course been welcomed – and we look forward to additional guidance on how those funded, and similar schemes, may be able to best run over the forthcoming summer holiday. But the recent weeks serve as a reminder that hunger and food insecurity does not wait for the summer holidays.
Hunger during the school holidays is a very real issue, in all 13 school-holiday weeks of the calendar year.
This is why we and others in the Southampton area positively welcomed the inclusion of Free School Meal funding for the Easter holidays. It echoed the package of support for individuals, families and others affected by the fast changing climate that Covid-19 has created. Despite this, many were unable to access this welcomed support; it came too late, in the midst of a challenged voucher system, and did not enable schools, caterers and other support services the time to logistically respond to the funding.
The financial impact of the pandemic will have persistent challenges for families, as the impact of job losses, and long-term furlough schemes, and the rise in Universal Credit applications continue. By extending the furlough scheme (in some form) until October, the Government clearly recognises that the impact on household income will continue to be unstable for some time. The clear division between term time and school holidays is now minimal for many families with pupils still at home, and therefore it seems illogical to ‘switch off’ FSM funding.
The schools that we support have recognised an increase in Free School Meal applicants, and the charities and community groups supporting them outside of term time echo this.
In a survey of Southampton support organisations, our preliminary results indicate that the top three reasons people are seeking support is for: food; income; mental health.
Support services are already stretched, meeting the needs of existing service users; in addition, they are now seeing a rise in new service users, who are facing new challenges due to the pandemic.
One of the key factors that will help households weather the impact of Covid-19 - financially, emotional and physically - is the provision of consistent and reliable support. The announcement that the Government is not continuing with Free School Meal funding for May half term only creates more uncertainty for families, and for those who support them. Alternative means of provision, or no means at all, will only result in children going hungry. That is not acceptable.
We cannot let children go hungry in the midst of the greatest pandemic this generation has ever seen.
It does not symbolise the statement of ‘we are all in this together’.
We urge the Government to review the funding available to families in the school summer holidays.
We urge the Government that those eligible for Free School Meals, and others who fall vulnerable to food poverty, need consistent access good food, safely.
The six week school holidays collides with: a changing furlough scheme; the end of other support avenues; and the long-term impact of children potentially not accessing healthy, hot meals for at least four months.
In order to best support these children and their families, schools and supporting organisations need to know, in advance, what support will be available.
This is an opportunity to ensure that children remain well fed, and given the best possible support in the lead up to wider school re-openings; enabling them the best fuel to ensure that they are ready to face the changing landscape, and recoup lost teaching time. We owe it to the youngest in our society to serve them best.
We echo the call made by Sustain:
‘We, the undersigned organisations, call on the Department for Education to immediately confirm that additional funding will be made available to local authorities and school academy trusts (and their respective food partners), at a level sufficient to expand provision of free school meals substitutes, and to the National School Breakfast Programme, to cover all holiday periods across the whole of England until end of August. This must apply to all school-age children eligible for benefits-related free school meals, plus all those families currently applying for Universal Credit or other income support programmes, and all children with no recourse to public funds’
Yours sincerely,
Rachel Hall CEO, City Catering Southampton - on behalf of the Holiday Provision Steering Group and the undersigned:
Cllr. Dave Shields, Southampton City Council
Cllr. Barrie Margetts, Southampton City Council
Cllr. Cathie McEwing, Southampton City Council, V. Chair Labour Group, SCC lead on DSA Forum
Jonathan Howells, Headteacher, The Cedar
Anne Hendon-John, Headteacher, The Polygon
John Draper, Headteacher, Swaythling Primary School
Dianna Smith, Lecturer, University of Southampton
Berni Stanley, Advice Service Manager, Citizens Advice Southampton
Dr Andrew Kemp MBE, Group Sales & Marketing Director, Bidfood
Susan Brakewell, Make Lunch Coordinator, St Mary’s Church, Sholing
Astrid Vaswani, Community and Pastoral Minister, Thornhill Baptist Church
Lucy Davis, Community Development Officer, Radian
Emma Stride, Client Service Manager, Homegroup
Janice Waterman Community Development & Digital Officer, Vivid Homes
Helen Pain, Volunteer, Townhill Helping Hub and member of Church of Ascension Bitterne Park