Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham Munira Wilson said school children are so hungry they are pretending to "eat rubbers" due to lack of free school meals in a Westminster Hall debate last week. Clip courtesy: parliamentlive.tv
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00:00 A child pretending to eat out of an empty lunchbox because they did not qualify for
00:05 free school meals and did not want their friends to know that there was no food at home.
00:09 A child coming into school having not eaten anything since lunch the day before, so hungry
00:14 that they're eating rubbers at school.
00:17 A child hiding in the playground because they don't think they can get a meal.
00:22 All stories from schools in England today.
00:25 This has to stop.
00:28 I want every child at school to be happy, healthy and ready to learn.
00:33 I doubt there is anybody here that would disagree with me on that point.
00:39 That's why it was Liberal Democrats in government who introduced free school meals for every
00:43 infant school child, something which I am incredibly proud of.
00:48 In 2014, the Children and Families Act was passed and it has since been required by law
00:54 to provide free lunches to all pupils in reception year one and year two.
00:59 This universal offering for all infants has paid real dividends.
01:03 A free school meal can be life-changing.
01:06 Its benefits are enormous.
01:08 Extending free school meals offers a triple whammy of benefits.
01:12 It saves parents time and money.
01:15 Parents save an average of £10 a week on food and 50 minutes a week preparing it.
01:19 It improves educational outcomes.
01:21 When free school meals for children aged five to seven were being piloted in East London
01:26 and Durham, pupils made around two months more progress in their SATs results compared
01:31 to those in the rest of the country.
01:34 It helps children to eat more healthily.
01:36 Packed lunches are much more likely to provide more calories from fat, sodium and sugar than
01:42 school meals.
01:44 When free infant school meals were rolled out, two in five headteachers told the Education
01:49 Policy Institute that healthy eating across the school had improved.
01:54 Mr Betts, free school meals are incredible and we should be giving one to every child
01:59 living in poverty, whether in primary or secondary school, because hunger and poverty do not
02:05 stop at the age of 11.