Children eligible for free school meals will benefit from a
national voucher scheme allowing them to continue to access meals
whilst they stay at home.
Schools can now provide every eligible child with a weekly
shopping voucher worth £15 to spend at supermarkets while schools
are closed due to coronavirus.
Schools can continue to provide meals for collection or delivery
themselves, but where this is not possible, the scheme will allow
schools to provide vouchers to families electronically, or as a
gift card for those without internet access.
The vouchers can be spent on food at a range of shops including
Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and M&S, with
the Department working to get more shops to join the scheme as
soon as possible.
Education Secretary said:
I recognise that the unprecedented action this Government is
taking to protect the country from coronavirus, including
closing schools, is dramatically affecting the lives of many
families.
I want to thank schools for the support they are continuing to
provide to families during such uncertain times.
No child should go hungry as a result of the measures
introduced to keep people at home, protect the NHS and save
lives. That’s why we are launching this scheme to make sure
children who usually benefit from free school meals still have
access to healthy and nutritious meals while they are not
attending school.
Parents will receive the voucher through their child’s school,
which can then be redeemed online via a code, or sent to their
house as a gift card and used at supermarkets across the country.
This delivers on the Government’s commitment to provide ongoing
support for the 1.3 million children that would receive
benefits-related free school meals at their school.
Today (Tuesday 31 March) schools will be emailed by the
Department for Education’s chosen supplier, Edenred. Schools will
then either be able to:
- Order vouchers individually online and have a code sent via
email to each family. The family can then show the code on their
phone at the supermarket; or
- Arrange a bulk order of multiple codes and receive an excel
spreadsheet to help schools organise sending on to a family, or
create an eGift card for a preferred supermarket to be posted to
a family if parents cannot get online.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of
Headteachers (NAHT), said:
This is welcome news for schools and families. This new system
fills in one of the remaining gaps in the complex jigsaw puzzle
of provision that has arisen from the Covid-19 crisis. There
may be some kinks to work out of the scheme, especially as it
has been developed at pace, but at least there is some
certainty available now.
The government has done the right thing by ensuring that
vouchers can be used at a range of different shops, making it
more practical for families to use the vouchers. Many schools
had already developed their own schemes and local solutions, so
it is good to see that they will be able to continue these if
they’re working well or adopt the new scheme if they feel that
would be better. We’ll be working with the government to make
sure this system works as effectively as everyone hopes it
will.
The total value of vouchers available per eligible child per week
exceeds the rate paid to schools for free school meals,
recognising that families will not be buying food in bulk and may
therefore incur higher costs.
The Department for Education has also published
new guidance on free
school meals to help schools and parents prepare.
Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s Chief Executive, said:
Over the last few weeks we have been working closely with the
government to get food to those who need it the most. We have
introduced measures to support NHS workers, elderly and
vulnerable customers and keep our customers and colleagues
safe. We are proud to be involved in the government’s brilliant
initiative, to help provide meals to school children as part of
our ongoing commitment to feed the nation.
