The government has today announced that any child who parents receive Universal Credit will be able to claim free shool meals from September 2026. This will mean that an additional 500,000 more pupils will be eligible adding to the 2.1million children who currently receive free school meals.
Soil Association Head of Food Policy Rob Percival said: “This is good news for the hundreds of thousands of families across England who struggle every day to access and afford sufficient food. Free School Meals provide a nutritional safety net and can help tackle inequalities, and this move will ensure more children receive them. We have campaigned for over twenty years to ensure that healthy school meals are given the priority they deserve, and our Food for Life Served Here programme, which certifies over a million healthy meals every day, supports schools and caterers to deliver high quality, nutritious meals.
“We would urge the government to ensure that is providing sufficient funding for caterers on the ground to deliver on this promise to deliver healthy and sustainable meals. The government should also build on this announcement by introducing parallel measures that ensure school food is sustainably procured, channelling additional spend into the pockets of British and organic farmers.”
This comes just two weeks after the Soil Association launched a campaign calling for the government to make whole and minimally processed foods more accessible, with expanded eligibility of free school meals a key ask from the charity. The Whole Truth campaign’s petition has so far reached nearly 15,000 signatures.