Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children are not hungry at school.

The department provides a range of support designed to ensure that children in schools are provided with healthy and nutritious meals throughout the school day.

The department is investing up to £35 million in the National School Breakfast Programme until the end of July 2025. This funding is supporting up to 2,700 schools in disadvantaged areas, meaning that thousands of children from low-income families are being offered free nutritious breakfasts at school to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.

In addition to this, the department spends over £1 billion a year on free school meals, including £600 million for Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM). Under the benefits-based criteria, two million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for free meals. Close to 1.3 million additional infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the UIFSM policy in 2014. In total, over one third of pupils are in receipt of this crucial support, which is up from one in six in 2010.

Furthermore, the department provides over 2.2 million children in reception and Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school through the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.

The department supports the provision of nutritious food in schools through ‘The Requirements for School Food Regulations’ (2014), which require schools to provide children with healthy food and drink options and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.