7. Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Update on Free School Meals

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:59 pm on 20 September 2022.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 5:59, 20 September 2022

I thank Rhianon Passmore for that important question. I think there'll be a number of positive consequences in the lives of these young learners and their families. The first, immediate effect will be to contribute to alleviating, to some extent, aspects of the cost-of-living pressures that families are under. If you like, I think a longer term benefit will be both to be able to transform the role of food in our schools in terms of healthy eating but also in terms of the understanding of young people about food—the origins of food and nutrition and so on. And I think it will have the effect of raising the profile of healthy eating in schools more generally, but also it increases the range of food that pupils eat and it'll also have well-being benefits for individual learners, which will lead to educational improvement. And I think one of the key benefits of this universal policy, which we've heard a number of speakers raise already, is eliminating the stigma that often is attached to free school meals. And many people in the Chamber have spoken about that passionately from their own experience, and I think, given the pressures that families are under, as much as we can do to eliminate that stigma I think is really very, very important.