I hope this happens too
Boris Johnson’s food tsar said last night that the government had a “moral obligation” to stop disadvantaged children going hungry as he announced plans for a £1.2 billion programme to help those most in need.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and the government’s adviser on food strategy, has sent Downing Street a four-point plan to tackle child hunger and urged ministers to “set aside ideology”.
The proposals include a holiday activity and food programme costing £500 million a year, a £100 million healthy food voucher scheme and a £670 million extension of the free school meals programme.
Mr Dimbleby said in an interview with The Times that the government had “walked into a massive bear trap” over whether to provide free school meals during holidays and needed an “authentic and proportional” response.
He said that the issue, which has been championed by Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United and England footballer, had had “real cut through” with the public. He said one Tory told him that it looked as if MPs had “taken food from children’s plates and are eating it”.
He said: “There is a genuine problem with food poverty that has been massively exacerbated by this [coronavirus] crisis. We have a moral obligation to set aside questions of ideology. If we can’t solve this who are we? I don’t understand why they [the government] haven’t owned this. Their mission is to level up. Clearly there was a massive bear trap that they walked straight into. It has cut through to a wide proportion of the population who ask why when you’re spending all this money are you letting children go hungry