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Serve up free meals
• HALF the children living in poverty are not entitled to free school dinners. This is despite the fact that, by the government’s own measure, a two-parent family with two children earning £18,000 is classed as living in poverty. This comes from the government that promised to halve child poverty.
For some children in Islington a school dinner will be the only hot meal they will get all day. Paying for school lunches is going to be a real struggle for residents as the recession hits more and more families.
Labour is aware this issue is a problem. Otherwise, why would the government have introduced a pilot scheme for three councils to offer free school dinners to more children in primary schools?
This scheme doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t include secondary schools and should be for children across the country, not just in a few places. The government needs to take decisive action on this issue and change the rules so that families who are struggling can get free school dinners for their children.
Cllr Paula Belford
Lib Dem executive member for children and young people
• IT is high time we extended the number of children who receive free school meals. In these tough economic times a free school meal is a real help to hard-working families.
Islington Lib Dems’ record on school food is shocking. First, it handed our school meals contract to Scholarest, the company behind the Turkey Twizzler. Now it has failed to act to ensure Islington gets the government money to trial extending free school meals.
Cllr Richard Watts
Islington Labour spokesman for children
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