Introduction

It is estimated that ‘two in five children living below the poverty line are not entitled to free school meals’ (Butler 2021: NP), where during the COVID-19 pandemic food insecurity intensified leading to the increased use of foodbanks in England. The Trussell Trust has reported:

The precarity of work combined with austerity cuts and inflation means that families are increasingly depending on food parcels at home and free school meals for children in school term time. After being rebuffed by the UK government, the footballer Marcus Rashford secured a policy U-turn by successfully campaigning for immediate support for: ‘the provision of meals and activities to low-income families during school holidays and the expansion of the healthy start voucher scheme’, and he continues to argue for longer term change through ‘a full-scale review of the free schools meals system’ leading to ‘a meal a day’ to all school pupils in England in financially struggling families’ (Butler 2021: NP). This speaks to the reality of the working poor whereby families are not being paid a living wage, and so are toiling hard to put food on the table, where subsistence is additionally threatened by Brexit and COVID-19.