Free school meals and child poverty

That this House recognises the important role that healthy, nutritious meals play in supporting a child’s education and the need to ensure that these meals continue to be available to children throughout the covid-19 pandemic; asserts that access to free school meal provision is an essential tool in tackling the attainment gap and supporting children’s learning; notes that many children do not grow up in environments conducive to covid-19 lockdown learning, with overcrowded accommodation, limited access to the internet and other resources, and a lack of access to nutritious food, impacting on their ability to concentrate and learn effectively; welcomes the recent announcement by the Scottish Government that, from August 2022, Scotland will be the first nation in the UK to provide free school meals to all children in primary schools and is committed to using its limited powers to tackle the scourge of child poverty, with measures such as the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment, described by the Scottish Child Poverty Action Group as a game-changer in tackling child poverty; realises that while the provision of free school meals is an important tool in tackling child hunger, it must be part of a wider plan to tackle child poverty, to ensure that every child is able to realise their full potential; and calls on the UK Government to publish a Child Poverty Action Plan to finally combat the shameful fact that around 30 per cent of children in the UK live in poverty.