North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has urged the Welsh Government to respond to calls for free-school-meal money to be increased following reports of children in schools in north east Wales going hungry.
Raising the matter with the Education Minister in the Welsh Parliament yesterday, Mr Isherwood said that some children do not have enough money to buy a school lunch as they are having to use their free school-meal-money to purchase breakfast, because they can’t get it at home.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said:
“TCC (Trefnu Cymunedol Cymru/Together Creating Communities) is a coalition of over 30 schools, community and faith organisations, and groups across north-east Wales. Last week, I attended the official launch of their all-Wales school hunger campaign at Ysgol y Grango in Rhosllannerchrugog, near Wrexham.
“Their research had found that many of the most vulnerable pupils aren't getting enough to eat during the school day, with pupils eligible for free school meals spending some of their free-school-meals money on breakfast, because there wasn't enough resource for this at home, and, as a result, not having enough money left for the full balanced lunch the free-school-meal allocation was designed to provide. And I pledged there to raise this with you here.
“Forty-nine per cent of teachers told them that they sometimes had to provide food for pupils themselves, and they said they highlighted the issue not as part of a blame culture anywhere, but because those children need help. How do you respond, therefore, to the campaign's call to increase free-school-meal money to cover breakfast by 80p daily? They said that there were just over 29,000 school pupils affected, and, on current take-up, this was unlikely to cost £3 million per annum, which would address the call of this campaign. So, how do you respond to that call?”
In her response, the Education Minister stated:
“Providing an allowance for breakfast for pupils eligible for free school meals in secondary schools is one course of action that I am actively considering at the moment. There are possibly other courses of action, and other solutions, that may be more appropriate to address this problem. What I want to make sure is that whatever we do is appropriate and provides a solution to the issues that the Member outlines. And now, having fulfilled his pledge of raising this issue with me, perhaps Mark Isherwood could do me the courtesy of raising the issue with his party colleagues in Westminster”.
Mr Isherwood added: “Regrettably, the Minister ignored my statement that the campaigners were not highlighting this issue as part of a blame culture. I hope she will acknowledge that this is a devolved matter and that the campaign is ‘calling on the Welsh Government to increase the free school meal allowance, so the poorest children in Wales can eat breakfast and a proper lunch’ ”.
