Child Food Poverty

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

May I start by saying what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bone? I congratulate the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), who is Chair of the Petitions Committee, on which I am proud to serve, on securing the debate and thank her for her introductory remarks.

During my career as a teacher, I was responsible, as a head of year, for the wellbeing of hundreds of children, so the issue we are debating is incredibly close to my heart. From my eight years as a teacher, I know how important it is for children to get the support they need and make the most of their lives. That is why, when we look back at the pandemic, we should think about the fact that, so far, the Government have issued over £380 million-worth of vouchers that have been redeemed for free school meals, which was entirely the right thing to do, particularly as children were not in school as we had asked them to stay at home.

We should also think about the £170 million given out through the covid winter grant scheme, which did a fantastic amount of work across the Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke area, and the uplift of standard universal credit weekly allowance by £20, which has been extended until the end of September 2021.

The petition has gathered a mass of national support. I want to focus on the holiday activities and food programme, of which I am a huge advocate. In my constituency, I am lucky to have the Hubb Foundation, run by Carol Shanahan and Adam Yates, a former professional football player. Since 2017, it has gone above and beyond, introducing programmes to ensure kids have activities that improve their mental and physical health, and receive a meal during the day. It works closely with schools to target those children who are most in need.

I believe we can also help by shortening the school summer holiday break. A report I wrote for Onward, which I know the Minister has seen, estimates that on average UK families spend £133 per week in childcare. Reducing the six-week break to four weeks would put £266 back in parents’ pockets. That would help to cover the cost of the summer break and help to prevent the widening of the attainment gap, which we know happens in the long summer holiday, particularly between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers.

In Stoke-on-Trent, we received over £1 million from the covid winter grant scheme, which helped 18,640 children through free school meal vouchers over Christmas and February half-term. Money also went to the Hubb Pots project, run by the Hubb Foundation, which provided up to 150 families with a slow cooker, ingredients and recipe cards for one meal a day for 12 weeks. Such action will ensure that families can continue to benefit independently and in the long term, because education is so important. We need better home economics education in our schools, so that children understand how to cook on a budget, how to prepare food and how to store it, so that food lasts longer in the fridge and the freezer. That will go a long way to ensuring that those young people have better access.

I thank the Minister for coming to Stoke-on-Trent, where we received £1.4 million for holiday activities. She visited Ball Green Primary School with Councillor Dave Evans and Councillor Abi Brown to witness the fantastic work of the Hubb Foundation, which provided 140 activity sessions across the city of Stoke-on-Trent—one of the largest programmes in the country. It was brilliant to see the confidence that the children were gaining—not only in the skills they were learning, but in the cooking that they were learning from.

I send another big shout out to Port Vale Foundation, which has given more than 300,000 meals to families throughout the pandemic. It won the English football league’s community club of the year award—rightly so, because in Stoke-on-Trent we wrap our arms around every single man, woman and child in our city, and we take very seriously the care and support that they need.