Alistair Strathern MP celebrates free school meal roll out for up to 3,000 more local children

Alistair Strathern MP has celebrated the Labour government’s plan to expand free school meals to every child in Central Beds and Hertfordshire whose family receives Universal Credit putting £500 a year back into parents' pockets and helping over half a million children across the country. It is estimated this will mean up to 3,000 more children will be eligible for free school meals across the Hitchin constituency.

Since 2018, children have only been eligible for free school meals if their household income is less than £7,400 per year, meaning hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty has been unable to access free school meals.

However this will now change from September 2026, and the Labour Government’s move will lift 100,000 children out of poverty across the country and ensure 500,000 more children get a hot, nutritious meal to support learning, behaviour and their future. 

Strathern, a former teacher, had previously successfully campaigned to secure the early roll out of free breakfast clubs to local schools including Shefford Lower, Meppershall and Etonbury Academy, said the expansion of free school meals is another vital step in Labour’s mission to give every child the best start in life. 

Today’s announcement comes ahead of the Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce publishing its ten-year-strategy to drive sustainable change later this year. It comes on top of targeted support for families being hit the hardest with the cost-of-living crisis, with urgent action including raising the national minimum wage, uprating benefits, and supporting 700,000 families through the Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions. 

Commenting, Alistair Strathern MP said:

“As a former teacher, I know the difference a proper meal can make. It’s the difference between a child realising their potential and falling short. That’s why I have long campaigned for expanding access to free school meals.

“Free breakfast clubs, cheaper school uniforms and now half a million more free school meals, I’m proud of the steps we’re taking.

“No child should go to school hungry in Hitchin, and I am determined to ensure that they don’t.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:

“It is the moral mission of this government to tackle the stain of child poverty, and today this government takes a giant step towards ending it with targeted support that puts money back in parents’ pockets.

“From free school meals to free breakfast clubs, breaking the cycle of child poverty is at the heart of our Plan for Change to cut the unfair link between background and success."