Jamie Oliver urges UK to use sugar tax to fund free school meals
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has called for the state to utilise the UK’s soft drinks tax to fund an extra 800,000 free school meals in England, as inflation drives food poverty higher.
Oliver, who was guest editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, said he was “prioritising the gap between the free school lunch kids and the working poor . . . That’s 800,000 kids that we believe are vulnerable”.
Oliver has previously campaigned on obesity and the quality of children’s food, backing a levy introduced in 2018 on soft drinks with sugar content above a specified threshold. The levy raised £334mn in the financial year 2021-22.
The Department for Education said it understood the pressures many households were under and was supporting more children and young people than ever before.
“Over a third of pupils in England currently receive free school meals in education settings and we have just announced a further investment in the national school breakfast programme, extending the programme for another year backed by up to £30mn,” the department said.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Judith Evans
