On Wednesday 21st October, the government voted against providing children entitled to free school meals with food vouchers during the half term, shortly after Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford campaigned for it.
Over a thousand people signed the food poverty petition for this cause across Redbridge, yet Chingford and Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith voted against it. Despite this, the council leader Jas Athwal announced on Thursday 22ndOctober that through Twitter that “No child deserves to go hungry”, claiming “This is not politics, this is humanity.” Since then, the council has pledged that the 7000 children throughout Redbridge that rely on free school lunches will have their meals funded on their behalf.
While the government has taken a step in the right direction to ensure these children have meals during the summer holidays, it’s Redbridge’s council that’s going further to make sure they do not go hungry for the holidays between now and that break. This has now spread, with 25 of the 32 London councils now taking part and pressure mounting on Boris Johnson for his refusal, with the petition having reached 900,000 signatures across the city by Monday morning, October 26th.
