The Children’s Future Food Inquiry ambassador Dame Emma Thompson champions the project’s final report, which calls for urgent political action on child food insecurity.
Dame Emma Thompson, Children’s Future Food Inquiry ambassador, said: “In a wealthy society that claims to value compassion and humanity, how can we tolerate the injustice of millions of children going hungry?
“In face of the government’s refusal to help, the Children’s Future Food Inquiry has brought together hundreds of young people to hear about their lived experience of food poverty, and it’s time we listened to what they say. It’s the younger generation who will deliver the change that’s so urgently needed: we must act now to ensure every child in the UK has their right to food.”
The Inquiry’s recommendations come on the same day as reports that a record 1.6 million food bank parcels were given to people in the past year, with more than half a million going to children.
One in three (4.1 million) children live in poverty in the UK, with an estimated 2.5 million living in food insecure households.
The Children’s Future Food Inquiry directly and systematically focused on the views of children and young people living in poverty across the UK.
It has spent 12 months investigating children’s food insecurity in each of the four UK nations, and the project’s final report pulls together direct input from hundreds of young people, the frontline staff, academics and experts.
Sharon Hodgson MP, Member of Parliament for Washington and Sunderland West, Shadow Minister for Public Health and Co-Chair of the Children’s Future Food Inquiry added: “As Co-Chair of the Children’s Future Food Inquiry, I have heard directly from young people about their experiences of food poverty.
“I believe that no child should be going hungry or experiencing food poverty. That is why I was proud to Co-Chair this inquiry and speak to young people who are experiencing food poverty in order to understand their hardships and how Government can better support them and their families.
“Children are falling through the safety net, and families are having to rely upon charities and service providers for things such as breakfast clubs, holiday provision and foodbanks. These children, and their families, need support from the Government in order to have access to healthy and affordable food.
“The Government must take this issue of food poverty seriously, and it must include young people in the conversation.”
With the first stage of the Inquiry concluded, the committee will focus on establishing the Children’s Food Watchdog, and its first action will be to conduct an economic costing of the full range of measures proposed in the report by the young people as solutions for the problems identified by the Inquiry.
The measures aim to tackle the differences in policy and provision across the UK with the aim to achieve minimum equitable standards, including extending the entitlement of free school meals to the 23% of children not entitled to them who are missing lunch due to lack of money; ensuring the funding provided for free school meals is actually sufficient to buy a healthy lunch; and ensuring that more families benefit from the fruit and vegetable vouchers provided through Healthy Start.