18 July 2023 , 11:51
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Jamie Oliver has delivered an emotional plea to the Government to ensure more vulnerable children get free school meals.
The celebrity chef appeared visibly moved as he told the Tories to "just fix it" and stop kids going hungry.
Some 800,000 children living in poverty miss out on free school meals under current rules, which only cover kids from Universal Credit households earning less than £7,400-a-year from work.
All young children in England can get free school meals up to the end of Year 2 but after that it only applies to households on certain benefits.
Mr Oliver, a long-time campaigner on children's food, wants all children living in UC families to get a school dinner to boost their health and life chances.
Free school meals for all primary kids in London, says capital Mayor Sadiq Khan
Jamie Oliver told the Tories to 'fix it' by rolling out free school meals to vulnerable children (PA)Addressing the Tony Blair Institute conference in London, he said the top priorities must be free school meals expansion, protecting kids from junk food ads and teaching youngsters how to cook 10 recipes before they leave school.
Mr Oliver said: "Free school lunches for the most vulnerable kids in the country - profoundly important, desperately important.
"Don't read it, don't think it, forget your opinion or where you grew up. If you see what that looks like and you feel what that looks like - it's bad.
"As a country, as a team, we have to protect those children. We have to get that over the line."
Mr Oliver said England was the "meanest" country in the UK as Scotland and Wales are rolling out free school meals to all primary school children.
He told critics to "see it, feel it, watch the child, see the parent pick them up, understand where they're coming from".
"Feed them, feed them, feed them," he added.
In a swipe at the Tories, he said: "Just fix it. It's easy, get it done, crack on."
Mr Oliver also praised Sadiq Khan for going further with a planned pilot of universal free school meals in primary schools in London.
The Mayor of London has supported the Mirror's campaign for free school meals for all primary kids.
'I know free school meals are a lifeline because I depended on them'
Mr Oliver also criticised ministers for lack of action on junk food advertising to kids after the Government kicked plans for a 9pm ban into the long grass.
He said children aren't born with a taste for chicken nuggets and burgers, adding: "It's called marketing".
Youngsters would see "a film's worth of advertising" during a season of X Factor, he said, and also warned of the "relentless" ads online and in video games.
Former Government food tsar Henry Dimbleby, who has backed the Mirror's free school meals campaign, echoed the calls for action.
He warned that obesity was hammering the economy by costing the NHS and harming productivity.
He cited figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showing obesity in adults costs the economy £65billion a year in healthcare costs, lost productivity, social care and costs to the individual.
Mr Dimbleby warned that society would be "crippled" without Government intervention - and slated ministers for shelving curbs on junk food ads.
Companies are caught up in a junk food "arms race" and will not "disarm" unless they are forced to, he said.
Mr Dimbleby added: "Unless the Government intervenes to stop them, each company will keep dreaming up ever more shameless ways to fill our shopping baskets with cheap, profitable, sugary junk."
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