School meals expansion to help break hunger poverty

More than a quarter of pupils in Leeds are eligible for free school meals, recent figures show.

- by Harriet Sutton

The report comes as the Government announced plans to expand free school meals to more pupils in England, adding it would make 500,000 additional children eligible.

Charity Feed Britain said the expansion will help a significant number of children to "break free of the hunger trap".

But it called on the Government to make eligible pupils' registration to the scheme more straightforward.

Department for Education figures show 35,841 (27 per cent) of the 132,221 pupils in Leeds were eligible for free school meals in January.

This was in line with the previous year, when the proportion stood at 27 per cent.

Across England, an additional 77,700 children became eligible for free school meals last year, taking their total to more than 2.17 million in January.