No Child Left Hungry

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No Child Left Hungry During Covid-19

There are 1.3 million schoolchildren that rely on free school meals. During Covid-19, schools have had to close which has left millions of children without lunch that they would normally get at school.

While the government have announced a national voucher scheme and provision during the Easter holidays, we still need to do more.

There are 1.3 million children at risk of going hungry during the summer holidays - and schools have not been given necessary guidelines on how to provide for them.

Some schools have started responding to local needs and have provided alternative options for parents, such as food parcels, vouchers for local shops and cash payments. The government urgently need to provide clearer guidelines so that schools can provide for their pupils.

Will you sign this petition so no child goes hungry during this pandemic?

Message for Your MP

When you sign the petition this message will be sent to Your MP.

Subject: No Child Left Hungry during COVID-19

I’ve been delighted to see the Government’s support to families during this crisis via the free school meal voucher scheme and the flexible guidelines that were published on April 7th 2020, which help to ensure that no child is left hungry during the present COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there are several areas of concern that remain. I am keen that, in your role as my local MP, you could seek clarification from the Government on:

Confirm that schools can work flexibly using a combination of the available approaches (provision of meals in school or food parcels; national vouchers; local vouchers; cash payments etc) to break down barriers to accessing support, and that all such reasonable arrangements will be accepted for reimbursement.
Continue with the support of local schools and others to negotiate with national supermarkets to extend the voucher scheme, in particular with the budget supermarkets (e.g Lidl) and with local supermarkets that are the main provision in smaller communities and rural areas (Co-op, SPAR, Iceland and others).
Extend the voucher scheme to cover the May half-term and the longer summer break. We are hearing that the voluntary sector will take time to recover capacity to support families in the long summer holidays as they have done in recent years. Families are already looking ahead to insecure work situations; economic recovery will be underway through the summer, and continued support will ease the transition for those in the greatest need.
Enable schools to exercise discretion to issue vouchers in cases of need (e.g regardless of immigration status; for new Universal Credit claimants) during the COVID-19 response period, and be reimbursed where they provide such support.

I would welcome a conversation with you about these issues, and would also be grateful for any guidance you can give as to the best people to contact to discuss these concerns.

Thank you for all that you do to support some of the most vulnerable families in our communities and ensure that no child is left hungry by COVID-19.

[Your name]

[Your e-mail address]

[Your postal address]

[Your postcode]

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