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Children missing meals during pandemic Rashford earlier this year. This called on the Government to extend free school meals to children from low-income families during school holidays in England. Aveek Bhattacharya, chief economist at Social Market Foundation said: “The stark evidence in this report shows that the challenge of food insecurity and child hunger is even greater and more urgent than many observers had thought and feared. The idea of a single child going short of food is heartbreaking but our evidence shows that almost 2 million children have been in that awful situation this year.”
Community spirit The food industry, such as restaurants, cafes and takeaways, made a huge effort to feed NHS frontline workers at the start of the pandemic; now they are turning their attention to child hunger. Many restaurants offered free hot meals or packed lunches over the October half-term, in response to Rashford’s campaign, and some are hoping to continue to run a similar initiative over Christmas. Maryam’s Kitchen in Ealing for example, which specialises in Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine, closed its doors to paying customers for one week over half-term in order to provide meals for children. It supplied hot packed lunches, with each pack featuring a daily-changing hot dish, such as chicken curry and rice, vegetable pasta or beef stew, alongside a piece of fruit, a bottle of juice or water and a healthy sweet treat such as a slice of banana bread. It was able to expand from a very limited menu to providing the above as a result of donations, raising nearly £5000 in four days and serving more than 500 portions in five days.
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early two million children have skipped meals this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to think tank The Social Market Foundation (SMF). Findings from its Measuring and mitigating child hunger in the UK report released in December, and which surveyed 1,000 parents, show that almost one in six families (16%), said children had to skip meals, make do with smaller portions or go a day without food between March and September. Child hunger has been increasingly in the spotlight in recent months, following a high-profile campaign launched by Premier League footballer Marcus
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