UK does a U-turn, backs soccer star’s child hunger campaign

Rashford, who has eloquently spoken about his own childhood experiences of relying on free school lunches and food banks, said the steps taken will improve the lives of nearly 1.7 million children in the U.K. over the next 12 months, “and that can only be celebrated.”

Rashford said he was “so proud” of those who backed his campaign against child hunger and that he was “overwhelmed by the outpouring of empathy and understanding.”

It’s the second time this year that Rashford has forced the government to change its policies. In June, it agreed to keep funding meals for poor students over the summer holidays after initially resisting.

The new money will pay for the COVID Winter Grant Scheme to support families over Christmas while the Holiday Activities and Food program will be extended to cover the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks in 2021.

As part of the package, Healthy Start payments, which help expectant mothers and those on low incomes with young children buy fresh fruit and vegetables, are to rise from 3.10 pounds to 4.25 pounds ($3.61 to $4.94) a week beginning in April 2021.

“We want to make sure vulnerable people feel cared for throughout this difficult time and, above all, no one should go hungry or be unable to pay their bills this winter,” said Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey.

The new money comes a month after the Conservative government failed to back a motion from the opposition Labour Party to extend free school meals.

Labour’s education spokesperson, Kate Green, accused the government of “incompetence and intransigence” for waiting until after the October fall school break to make the announcement, and of creating “needless and avoidable hardship for families across the country.”

Businesses and local governments stepped into the breach following the government’s failure to pay for free school meals in October.

England’s children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield, welcomed the government’s announcement Sunday but called on it to “go further” with benefit payments.

“Hunger does not take a holiday when schools close and a long-term solution to the growing number of children in poverty is urgently required,” she said.

Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation thinktank, also welcomed the government’s change of heart, saying it was a “big win” for disadvantaged children. But she said the government needs to help another 1.7 million poor students who miss out on free school lunches because the qualifying income is set far too low.

“Children’s food poverty, like the pandemic, will not go away until we have a lasting solution in place,” she said.

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Follow all of AP’s coronavirus pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

UK does a U-turn, backs soccer star’s child hunger campaign

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