The Tameside Radio presenter talks about a sobering statistic raised by Jamie Oliver which puts the stark reality facing some families with children in the weeks ahead into perspective.

I heard a shocking figure when listening on catch up to a recent interview on Radio 4's Today Programme with Jamie Oliver. 800,000 children are living in poverty, but are not eligible for free school meals. This is a crazy figure, especially since we are living through such tough economic times, as prices continue to rise at a much faster rate than our pay packets.

Over three quarters of a million (800,000) is an awful lot of kids with rumbling tummies in the classroom, little or nothing in their lunchboxes, or parents having to skip meals themselves in order to be able to send them to school with something to eat at lunchtime.

The Feed The Future campaign is calling for the government to extend free school meals to all children in poverty and end the hunger crisis that is harming their life chances. It's backed by the Food Foundation, the charity which teamed up with footballer Marcus Rashford during the pandemic to successfully lobby for the government to feed hungry kids. It took some doing, and a lot of political pirrouetting, but sadly things continue to get worse, not better, as lockdowns become a distant memory.

The threshold for free meal eligibility really shocked me when I heard it on the radio. If a household (not an individual) earns more than £7,400 a year, they don't qualify. That is peanuts by anyone's definition, and is causing real issues to families on universal credit, who are struggling with the cost of living crisis. A YouGov poll has shown that 72 per cent of the public back the expansion of free school meals to all families who are on universal credit, which is certainly a pretty convincing majority by anyone's definition.

Accounting firm PwC has looked at the cost, and found that it would amount to an addition £477 million in the first year, dropping to £210 million in two decades' time. However, there would be a net benefit over this time period amounting to £2.4 billion. For every £1 invested by the government, £1.38 would be returned under their analysis.

Wales and Scotland have already announced plans to extend free school meals to all primary school children, so England is badly lagging behind. The qualification threshold has been doubled to £14,000 in Northern Ireland. Here in Tameside and Glossop, many children are coming to school with little more than a bruised banana and a couple of biscuits in their lunch box, leading to energy levels slumping by the afternoon.

How can this have happened in one of the world's richest countries? Of course, a vocal minority will blame parents. Work harder, they'll bleat. Spend your money more carefully. Some nonsense about flat screen TVs and broadband. Years of reading tabloid articles scapegoating some of the most vulnerable in our society, rather than suggesting ways of helping them.

The fact is that prices are shooting up, and wages are not keeping pace with that. Even with the government help on energy bills that's been announced, many families are scared to turn the heating on as the nights get colder. Blocks of cheese and tubs of margarine are so pricey they now have security tags on them. Milk costs more per litre than petrol in some shops. It's a real mess, and the interview on the radio with chef Jamie Oliver was one that really made me stop in my tracks and think.

As he said: "Kindness has to be injected through this party if they have got any chance. And I don't know if they've got it in them to show this kindness".

This is a real quick win for the Conservatives to shed the unwelcome "nasty party" label. I know many individual MPs do care, but it's not a good look to absolve responsibility on the grounds that everything is down to individual choice. I hardly think 800,000 kids choose to live in poverty. Even if Liz Truss proves to be "a ship that passes in the night", as Oliver predicts, the future of our children depends on us keeping them fed whilst they learn at school. 

It seems a five per cent cut in the top rate of tax was more of a priority for this government than guaranteeing a real terms benefit rise linked to inflation. Although the cut was dropped after the pound collapsed, we need to keep up the pressure on free school meals. Write to your MP if you can. The thought of kids going hungry this winter is heartbreaking, and I admire the likes of Jamie Oliver for speaking out, even if that does make him part of the fabled "anti-growth coalition".

You can listen to Alex every weekday from 7am to 11am and on the 'Super Scoreboard' show on Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm, on Tameside Radio 103.6FM. Read more of Alex's recent columns here. 

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