“We’re letting our children go hungry at school and it’s horrifying” – expert comment on school meals crisis

With the BBC reporting that families are only able to afford one school meal a week amidst the current crisis, Jane Kenyon, expert speaker and founder of social enterprise Girls Out Loud which works with vulnerable teenage girls in the UK said:

“We’re seeing first-hand the effects that this cost of living crisis is having on young people in schools and it’s horrifying.

For a lot of children and teenagers, school has been the only place to stay warm, feel safe and get a decent hot meal and now schools can barely offer that. We’re letting our children go hungry and it’s deeply concerning and so unnecessary.

Stories that we’re hearing about young people only getting one proper lunch a week because that’s all their families can afford are becoming more and more commonplace and yet seemingly, very little is being done to combat this and protect the most vulnerable in society.

We’ve seen amazing people like Marcus Rashford step in and help over recent years but this is the government’s problem and I’m calling on them to take immediate action and take responsibility for a crisis that shouldn’t be punishing our young people. Bring back free school meals! No child should go hungry. Something must be done and it must be done now.”

Girls Out Loud, which is passionate about inspiring and empowering teenage girls to find their voices, harness their self-belief and maximise their potential, works with schools across the North-West, offering early intervention programmes including Big Sister mentoring programmes which has helped thousands of girls for over a decade. The programme also has the ear of thousands of women too, who step up to be mentors and role model advocates.