6 - Viewpoints
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2024
Summary
Introduction
It is estimated that ‘two in five children living below the poverty line are not entitled to free school meals’ (Butler 2021: NP), where during the COVID-19 pandemic food insecurity intensified leading to the increased use of foodbanks in England. The Trussell Trust has reported:
As more and more people across the country face destitution – meaning they are unable to afford the absolute essentials to eat, stay warm, dry and clean – the Trussell Trust warns need for emergency food is expected to rise further still, this winter and beyond. Food banks in the Trussell Trust network face giving out more than 7,000 food parcels every day in December. The charity says many families already at breaking point face the fallout of the £20 per week cut from Universal Credit payments that hit this autumn. This is on top of rising fuel costs during the coldest season, as well as soaring inflation. This is forcing many families deeper into poverty, the charity says, and is leaving people facing impossible decisions where their only option is to either skip meals to provide food for their children or heat their home. (The Trussell Trust 2021: NP)
The precarity of work combined with austerity cuts and inflation means that families are increasingly depending on food parcels at home and free school meals for children in school term time. After being rebuffed by the UK government, the footballer Marcus Rashford secured a policy U-turn by successfully campaigning for immediate support for: ‘the provision of meals and activities to low-income families during school holidays and the expansion of the healthy start voucher scheme’, and he continues to argue for longer term change through ‘a full-scale review of the free schools meals system’ leading to ‘a meal a day’ to all school pupils in England in financially struggling families’ (Butler 2021: NP). This speaks to the reality of the working poor whereby families are not being paid a living wage, and so are toiling hard to put food on the table, where subsistence is additionally threatened by Brexit and COVID-19.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Political Sociology of Education Policy , pp. 82 - 96Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023