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22 April 2026

Tag: free school meals

Edenred is back: Free school meals voucher scheme to relaunch Monday

The government’s national free school meals voucher scheme will relaunch next Monday and be run by original supplier Edenred – with schools now given the freedom to provide food in whatever way they see fit. Ministers announced their intention to restart the voucher programme last week, but did not confirm details until today. The scheme […]

Government to relaunch national free school meals voucher scheme

Pupils eligible for free school meals will once again be offered supermarket vouchers via a national scheme again this year if their school cannot provide food parcels or meals to them at home. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said today that following the decision to partially close mainstream schools, extra funding would be provided to […]

Schools find new ways to help their communities at a time of crisis

From lunch deliveries and food banks to mobile libraries and “reverse” advent calendars, schools have stepped up to the Covid challenge by transforming the way they engage with their communities. As schools across England closed to most children in March, staff turned their attention not just to supporting vulnerable pupils, but also to vulnerable people […]

Holiday hunger providers demand ‘multi-year funding’ as DfE extends scheme

The government must allocate “multi-year funding” for its holiday activities and food programme, previous recipients said after the announcement of a £220 million expansion to the scheme. The extension of HAF to all areas in England and into the Easter and Christmas holidays next year was announced on Sunday, following mounting pressure on ministers to […]

MPs removed from food poverty charity’s board following free school meals vote row

A former shadow education minister has said she is “deeply upset” after she and three other MPs were removed from the board of a food poverty charity following a row over the parliamentary vote on free school meals. Feeding Britain has announced a “restructure” of its board that has seen former shadow education minister Emma […]

No evidence for minister’s claim parents ‘prefer to pay’ for school dinners

A government minister stands accused of misleading the public after he falsely claimed that research showed parents “actually prefer to pay a modest sum” of “£1 or £2”, instead of receiving free school meals. It is pretty desperate to see ministers making misleading claims in order to justify voting against feeding hungry children in a […]

Ministers ‘knew all along’ free school meal vouchers would cover Easter

Ministers have been accused of knowing “all along” they would extend the national voucher scheme into the Easter holidays. But Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, did not announce the decision to continue providing the vouchers to families eligible for free school meals until April 4, the day after most schools broke up for the […]

Spending watchdog opens inquiry into national free school meal voucher fiasco

The public spending watchdog is to investigate the government’s free school meals voucher scheme following wide-ranging problems that left parents and children to go hungry. The National Audit Office said the investigation will “set out the facts” about the voucher scheme, including probing the Department for Education’s “objectives and choice of contractor to run the […]