School meals makes sense

Having access to ‘the food and housing they need to reach their full potential’ is a right for all children enshrined in Article 27 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Yet very recently it was estimated that there are around 1,000 children living in poverty in Jersey who are not getting a hot meal every day. That statistic is both heart-breaking and embarrassing. In the year 2022 we should be doing much, much better for these children in particular and for their peers who, regardless of household incomes and personal circumstances, would all benefit from the provision of healthy school meals.

Tackling the root causes of poverty itself so that families are able to provide for their children is, of course, imperative. But at the same time we can take action today to immediately improve the lives of those affected by poverty by providing free, healthy meals every day they are at school. A pilot scheme is underway at some schools, which is free for students in receipt of the pupil premium, but a move by Reform Jersey Deputy Rob Ward to extend the scheme to all other primary schools by September 2021 was rejected by the current States Assembly, 25 votes to 22. Why?

Concerns were raised during the debate about whether schools had the right facilities in place to deliver the meals, as well as the cost of staffing, training and recruiting those needed to get the programme extended. These are just excuses.

The simple fact is our government chose not to make this a priority, and they encouraged a majority of the States Assembly to back them in that decision. The comments about facilities were just an excuse – if they had wanted to do it they could have. Remember, this is a government supposedly 'putting children first'.

Any issues over facilities could have been overcome. More than a year later two more schools are getting meals soon as part of the extended pilot – it’s better than none, of course, but that is painfully slow progress. Are we going to wait another ten years for the remaining 20 States primary schools to be added too? And why haven’t we prioritised the schools with the most pupil premium students?

I believe there is also a case for considering providing free school meals to all students, regardless of household income. Such an approach would place all children on a level playing field (we have precedent for that thinking with schemes like the free nursery hours), prevent money being wasted and pressure being placed on staff in administering a two-tier system and stop those on the margins being negatively affected. A means-tested system also relies on the income support system it is based on being up to scratch and catching all families it needs to.

At £2.50 a day for a meal, it would cost around £475 a year to provide a child with free school meals. The money we have wasted so far on the new hospital debacle could have provided free school meals for all primary school children for many, many years.

Providing school meals is common sense – it promotes healthy eating habits, can help reduce childhood obesity and other diseases (reducing financial pressures these create later too), ensures all children are getting a cooked meal each day, which itself can improve concentration, performance and behaviour at school and supports families. It reduces food waste and rubbish created by packed lunches (think of all those half-eaten yoghurts thrown away in plastic pots each day!), enables those organising the meals to choose local where possible and opens up opportunities for things like composting.

Providing school meals makes so much sense.