Children are so hungry at school they're 'eating rubbers'

NationalWorld.com

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.

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