Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children eligible for free school meals (a) did and (b) did not apply for support from the COVID Summer Food Fund before the deadline.

We do not ask individual pupils to register for the Covid Summer Food Fund. Schools can order vouchers on behalf of all eligible pupils through the Edenred online portal.

Where eligible families would be unable to access any of the supermarkets available through using Edenred e-gift cards, schools can make alternative voucher arrangements with a local supermarket.

Schools can claim for this through the exceptional costs fund in the autumn, providing schools have ordered their vouchers by the end of term.

Schools can also claim through the exceptional costs fund if they are arranging food parcels (rather than vouchers) for benefits-related free school meal pupils over the summer holidays.

Our national voucher scheme supplier, Edenred, have reported that:

• over £272 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket e-gift cards by schools and families through the scheme as of Wednesday 15 July; and
• over 18,500 schools had placed orders for the scheme as of Tuesday 30 June.