I thought this thread was highlighting a very specific point. This is about children from disadvantaged homes who due to their family circumstances would ordinarily get a free nutritious balanced meal in school. It’s not about questioning the children or their parents, not comparing them to our own children who are not entitled to free school meals. Plain and simple, the question asked is are our obligations to those children being met during enforced school closures and if not why not?. Each provider gets £3 per day per eligible child. In the previous lockdown in March the government passported that money directly to the parents. Some uncaring folk tried to demonise these families saying they would use it for booze, fags or drugs, they couldn’t but let’s isolate and denigrate them some more anyway. The parents could go and spend £15 on preparing 5 meals. Yes that had to meet the extra utility costs in preparing the meals but ultimately poor kids got fed. People in education will tell you for some kids the free school meal is the only substantial meal many of them will get that day. Most secondary schools give disadvantaged kids breakfast as many have not eaten the night before. This is the reality in Britain today. This time around the funding is going via the mostly private school catering providers and there are not just isolated incidents but numerous examples of ‘skimming’ unacceptable levels of profit of the top by these companies that is adversely effecting the most needy in the country. If it is happening in one household it is likely to be the companies policy in that area for others. This is unacceptable and I am amazed anyone other than a Tory MP or Councillor detached from the reality of life in Middlesborough would seek to defend or excuse this. It is a tax on the poor to improve dividends and profits for the rich, nothing more nothing less.