It is also important for children to eat together at school and to have a healthy break or some children skip eating all day at school if there is not a set time together with everyone. My son chats and forgets to eat. Plus a choice of food is great. It also teaches children to make time to eat it is organised and paid for they will have to therefore make the time to stop and eat together at the same time otherwise this is regularly forgotten by lots of children.

All children should get free school meals no matter what the age the race the eligibility each child is equal

It is very important for a child to have a hot well balanced meal with no stigma attached to it. Medway is a very deprived area. Also thanks to a whole generation not being taught how to cook simple nutritious meals - mums and dads do not have the skills to provide wholesome food at low cost to their children. We are a developed nation. We need to make sure all our children get a hot meal Atleast once a day.

Children cannot focus and learn if they’re hungry. There are too many families struggling to feed their children. They deserve to be fed a proper hot meal.

How can we ignore the fact that there are still young people going to school hungry. We know this after to their ability to concentrate well enough to be educated. We cannot ignore that many children in the country are living below the poverty line.

Having being a parent that’s struggled with money, the only thing that played on my mind was making sure my child had enough to eat. With the cost of living increasing daily, putting food on the table at school is one thing that every parent shouldn’t need to worry about.

Too many children are attending School hungry which inevitably affects not only their learning capabilities but also will largely effect their social skills.

No one knows which child has eaten today !! but if they have a meal at school we know

At SAPHNA, we see firsthand how good nutrition underpins children and young people's health, wellbeing and educational achievement. Free school meals are a cornerstone of child health and educational equity They are a vital public health intervention that helps ensure every child has access to nutritious food, supports concentration and learning, reduces the impact of food insecurity, and helps improve long-term health outcomes. We urge MPs to recognise free school meals as an investment in the health, wellbeing and future potential of our nation's children.

I work in a secondary school in a deprived area. Lots of pupils are on FSM, however we have a cohort of pupils who are not entitled to FSM but do not eat as their families do not have enough money to pay for their lunches. It breaks my heart watching them at lunchtime waiting for friends to give them food or even resorting to stealing from the canteen.

Because unconditional & universal help is the best type of help & it’s not divisive. There are no barriers to access Free School Meals for every child. Free School Meals help the individual children & their families and also the whole school!

It’s obvious no child can work and play to their top potential if they go to school hungry and to offer every single child a free school meal would be such a huge gesture from Labour, telling our population that Labour really understands and cares.

No matter how rich or how poor a child’s family is. Free school meals to every child is the only guarantee they will have 1 hot meal every school day.

I grew up within a low income family however we didn’t quality for benefits so I didn’t receive free school meals. As a child I was desperate to receive free school meals as I was constantly hungry. My parents could only afford to pay for school dinners occasionally as a special treat.

Free school meals are a perfect symbol for what the purpose and concerns of this government should be- assisting with cost of living now, while ensuring a brighter future for the nation as a whole

Children’s needs are not being met nor respected as a legal obligation. Yes, practical implication is a challenge. However, there is no excuse to deliberately ignore this issue as if treated as a stigma, as this will cost the lives of a generation of children with this hypocrisy. No child should ever face shame.

Most children who do not qualify for free meals bring packed lunches. These are usually less nutritious than the cooked meals, and lead to children comparing and competing. Children who receive free meals are easily identified and feel self-conscious. I am very keen for my Grandson's whole class to sit down to the same hot meal, developing a feeling of community, social skills and healthy eating habits!

How are we supposed to move towards a culture of equality if we deny all children accessing free school meals?

I am a medical student very passionate about raising awareness of health inequalities. The government must commit to supporting children and families through welfare support instead of patching the problem with unsustainable plasters. Children living hungry is destroying their future health and learning opportunities. Free School Meals NOW!

It is a necessary step to creating a fair and equitable society. All children should have the right to freedom from hunger, and we must ensure that school meals are free for everyone to protect and nurture our children.

I have 3 daughters. 1 in year 4 which i pay for school meals, 1 in year 2 who gets hers free and 1 with a childminder who gets hers free. It costs £1.80 per day for my daughters lunch. When that is times 2 neat year, it will cost me £3.60 per day, or £18 per week for the lunch at school. They sometimes have packed lunch, but prefer to eat dinner with their friends. I am on a minimum wage job, and to be paying almost £20 a week next year, will equate to almost half a weeks wage for me, just for their school lunches.

As an ex home carer, I have seen children from some poorer families go to school on next to nothing on their stomachs & some come in from school to very poor quality food. When I was a child I had school dinners, the food was delicious in those days, good quality, vegetables & meat.

I work in the school kitchens and also have a son that is going to high school and the cost of everything at the moment, let alone school dinners, costs a fortune, there has been times where some school child have come into school with nothing to eat and we’ve been able to offer them a meal as they haven’t eaten. Some children only get their school meal at school and aren't able to get one at home. We have even sent care packages home for families if they have hit hard time and not been able to provide for them at home. People are scraping by.

I'm a deputy manager in a primary school kitchen and also a mother to two children. Ever since I began working in my school and have seen first hand the positive impact a healthy school lunch can have on children, I have developed a passion for school meal provision and believe all children should have the opportunity to access them. I think the introduction of universal free school meals to the infants age group has been a huge success but unfortunately there are still children falling through the cracks who would benefit from a school dinner, the next logical step in my opinion is to extend it to all primary school children.

I’m a primary school teacher and mum to 3 teenagers. I see lots of families in the area around our school struggling with the constant requests for money from schools eg, school uniform, trips, lunches. School meals are incredibly expensive and not value for money. With so many families struggling to provide hot meals at home due to hardship or negligence, free school meals for all would mean that every child can be guaranteed to have access to at least one hot meal a day. Children from families not eligible this should be inclusive and include every child.

As a trainee teacher, I am learning the best ways in which to support a child to learn to the best of their ability. I will not be able to do that if the children in my classroom are hungry and unable to focus. As a parent of Primary School children, I also understand the importance of making sure my children are happy and well fed. If schools can take away the burden from those parents so they know their children are not just getting an education but are also sitting in their classroom having had a healthy lunch and so are able to learn effectively, why would we not want to do that?

Having worked in a primary school previously I know there are many families that would be eligible for FSM but don’t apply through ignorance or shame. Offer free school meals to all primary pupils and level the playing field.

For low income families lunches can soon mount up financially and so relieving this pressure means more food to keep children well fed and therefore ready to continue learning. For some families this is the only meal in a whole day. Even with pupil premium it doesn’t help everyone. I am a PTA member and my husband is a governor at our children’s primary school. We see first hand the struggle families have and how the children are sometimes ridiculed for something out of their control.

I am a TA and a mom with 2 children in school. It is a pressure for a lot of parents these days to provide lunch for their children, a hot meal means healthy meal and not sandwiches and a fruit from home, a lot coming to school with chocolate, chips, and a lot of unhealthy products

I have 3 children myself. Makes me sad to know so many children are.going to school hungry. No kids should be expected to learn and concentrate if they haven't eaten at home for many reasons, poverty and cost of living being the main reason.

I am a SEND school federation catering manager and we are seeing more and more children with very restricted diets but parents can’t always afford to buy food at home to increase the children’s palette. If school meals where free for all they could access a variety of foods without the cost and this will improve some pupils eating habits. In turn their health.

Families are really struggling to feed their children and themselves with the cost of living crisis. Some children go to school without breakfast, so it’s important that they have a nutritious meal at lunchtime , they may not get much when they go home from school.

I am a dinner lady and too often there are children coming into school in the morning having not had breakfast because there was no food in the house. Quite often these are children that are not on free school meals which means they won't have anything in their lunch box or indeed anything for tea. If I could afford to pay for their meals I would.

No one can afford to live at the moment. Working families also need help, not just those on UC. No child should be hungry because the government is crippling everyone.