Free school meals drive showed the best of us
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Free school meals drive showed the best of us

Jane Bates Retired nurse

Retirement means I now have more time to pester my MP. But my most recent plea – for the government to extend free school meals over the holidays – appeared to go unanswered. I finally got a response, just as I saw the headline: ‘Government U-turn on free school meals.’ Result!

Nursing Standard. 35, 12, 12-12. doi: 10.7748/ns.35.12.12.s7

Published: 02 December 2020

The year I spent as a school nurse in one of the most deprived areas of the country was the most fulfilling of my career. Though it was at times depressing, I loved it, and will never forget the people I met.

As I explained to my MP, financial benefits for those in need don’t necessarily resolve food poverty. One family under our umbrella of support made me weep. There was little doubt that the children were neglected. One sibling, just two years old, had died of ‘failure to thrive’, which brought the family to our attention.

When I met the parents, it all made sense. They loved each other, they loved their children, but after experiencing cruelty and neglect throughout their own childhoods, they didn’t have a clue about a child’s basic needs. Their plight would not have been out of place in a Dickens novel. Thankfully the older children had free school meals – the only reasonable sustenance they received.

There were other families suffering hardship because of mental or physical illness, loss of livelihood and/or domestic abuse – desperate parents and their children left to go without.

Things are no better now for those caught in the poverty trap. In fact, given the austerity of the past decade or so, I imagine they are even worse.

Footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign brought out the best in us as a society. Footballers and food outlets stepped up and kept the issue at the top of the public agenda. I like to think that those of us who harassed our MPs also added to the pressure that caused the government to relent.

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