Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when will funding be made available for free school meals for children during summer 2020; when vouchers will be available to all children on free school meals and what the cut off date for eligibility will be.

Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a COVID Summer Food Fund which will enable families with children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the 6-week holiday period.

Our guidance on the COVID Summer Food Fund is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund.

Through the COVID Summer Food Fund, schools can support eligible pupils with a £90 voucher to cover the 6-week holiday period. Schools must order the vouchers at least one week before their school term ends.

Schools should continue to accept and verify free school meal applications up until the end of the summer term. The eligibility criteria for free school meals can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals. If a school receives a claim for an eligible child during the final week before the school’s summer holidays, it will be possible for the school to place an exceptional order for that child via our supplier Edenred.