Aldi has confirmed today (Tuesday 21 April) it has signed up to
the national voucher scheme, which is one of the ways the
Government is supporting children on free school meals during the
Covid-19 outbreak.
Aldi joins a range of supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Tesco,
Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and M&S where vouchers can be
redeemed. The Department for Education continues to work to get
more shops to join the scheme as soon as possible.
Schools can continue to provide meals and food parcels for
collection or delivery themselves, but where this is not
possible, the scheme allows schools to provide vouchers to
families electronically, or as a gift card in the post for those
without internet access.
By giving headteachers flexibility on how they can get meals or
shop vouchers to these children, they can make the most
appropriate decisions for families in their communities, and
provide immediate reassurance that this important support will
continue.
The Department has worked closely with the provider Edenred to
expand the system and ensure that there is capacity to add Aldi
to the list of supermarkets.
Minister for Children and Families said:
We are focused on making sure that the 1.3 million
disadvantaged children who would normally have a free school
meal do not go hungry as a result of staying home to protect
the NHS and save lives.
We encourage schools to work with their suppliers to arrange
food parcels or collections. Where this is not possible, we
have launched a national scheme for schools to provide
supermarket vouchers. So far, Edenred report that £15 million
worth of vouchers have been converted into supermarket gift
cards by schools and families.
Today I am pleased to announce that supermarket Aldi has joined
the list of supermarkets who can accept the national scheme
gift cards and parents will be able to order Aldi vouchers from
the week commencing 27 April.
More information on the free school meals voucher scheme is
available in the guidance.
