Labour MP who knows stigma of free school meals urges Keir Starmer to extend them

A Labour MP has said the stigma of receiving free school meals stayed with her all her life – as she urged Keir Starmer to commit to extending free lunches to all primary kids.

Sharon Hodgson, who was the Labour leader’s Commons aide until only a few months ago, threw her weight behind the Mirror’s campaign for universal free school meals in primary schools.

The Washington and Sunderland West MP called for the policy to be in Labour’s election manifesto and said “so many” Labour MPs backed the move.

The Mirror and the National Education Union are calling for every primary pupil to get free school lunches to ensure no child goes hungry.

Growing up in Gateshead, Ms Hodgson, 57, and her two younger brothers relied on school dinners after her dad walked out when she was seven years old.

She told the Mirror: “That stigma that a school a free school meal (brings), it stays with you.

“I can remember being that kid getting the free school meal. You already know you’re poor, you already know you’re from a poor family. You do not need that reinforced when you’re in school but oh boy it does.”

The children never went hungry thanks to free school lunches, which she said “massively helped” her mum as the family struggled to make ends meet.

She said: “There’s choices you’ve got to make on a limited income. The choice for our family was there was food, we got food, but we didn’t get takeaways or treats or sweets or I didn’t have the new clothes or anything like that.

Ms Hodgson, a well-respected backbencher and long-time campaigner on school food, recently left her role as a Commons aide to Mr Starmer to speak freely on issues she cares about.

As Shadow Children’s Minister during the coalition years, she lobbied hard behind the scenes to get free school meals expanded.

She said she was “so proud” when universal infant free school meals were introduced in 2014, but admitted it was “bittersweet”.

“I was so upset it wasn’t us”, she said.

Ms Hodgson hailed Labour’s commitment to breakfast clubs in every primary school if the party gets into Government – but urged the party to go further to help needy kids.

“Often the most chaotic families and the poorest families are not the ones accessing the free breakfast offer. When you do universal free school meals it reaches on average 95% of the kids,” she said.

On free school meal expansion, she said “If we did primary in the first parliament and the second parliament we could roll it out into secondary. I will always believe that is money well spent. I can point anyone who wants it to all the evidence.”

Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who relied on free school meals as a child, has previously praised the Mirror’s campaign but stopped short of backing the move.

She told the Mirror last month: “It’s an important area that of course, like many others, we’ll keep under review.”

Research by PwC last year found expanding the free school meals scheme could inject up to £41.3bn into the economy over 20 years.

It found that free school meals slash costs for parents, save the NHS cash by reducing childhood obesity rates, and boost pupils’ lifetime earnings by improving their educational attainment.

England is “such an outlier” as Scotland and Wales have committed to expanding free lunches to all primary kids already, she said.

Under current rules, pupils in England get free school meals up to the end of Year 2 and then only if their families receive certain benefits.

Children whose families claim Universal Credit only qualify if their household earns less than £7,400-a-year after benefits.

The former shadow minister broke down in tears as she told Rishi Sunak to listen to pleas to feed hungry kids.

She said: “He (the PM) hasn’t got the experiences and the memories I’ve got to look back on.

“So I would say to him, ‘Try and walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes, be that kid that’s woken up hungry, went to bed hungry, woke up hungry, goes to school hungry.

“How are they going to learn and get through the day if they’re hungry?”

Ms Hodgson said she has seen the meagre lunches some kids bring in, and been told stories by teachers of children coming in with a scoop of rice or a slice of old pizza in their lunchbox.

“There’s so many kids going in with an empty lunchbox and their friend shares. The teacher sees this and it’s absolutely heart-breaking and it just doesn’t need to be like that.

“This country has so much wealth.”

The Government says that over a third of pupils in England receive free school meals and it has poured £30million into extending the National School Breakfast Programme until July 2024.

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