UK schools expected to provide food charity to families facing nutritional insecurity, research flags

30 Nov 2023 --- In the face of a deepening cost of the UK’s living crisis, schools are forced to rely on donations from parents and staff, as they increasingly become a safety net for families grappling with economic challenges, as revealed by recent research.

“Schools are stepping in as a safety net because of the significant pressure on families’ finances over the last few years — this has become known as the cost of living crisis,” Dr. William Baker, senior lecturer at the University of Bristol’s School of Education and the Bristol Poverty Institute tells Nutrition Insight.

“It’s striking and concerning how normalized and embedded the food aid had become within schools in England.”

According to the UK Food Foundation, in late 2022, 25% of all British households reported experiencing food insecurity. Among families with more than two children, almost 42% were food insecure, according to the charity’s data from 2023.

According to The Food Foundation, in 2022, 25% of British households were food insecure.Food aid operations
Baker conducted the research within 25 primary (ages five to 11) and secondary schools (ages 11 to 16) nationwide, including in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leicester and smaller urban and rural locations. 

“Food inflation has been exceptionally high. This has led to significant increases in food insecurity, and families with children have been particularly hard hit. Seeing the level of need, growing numbers of schools are responding by providing food directly to families.”

“Schools rely on donations from parents and school staff. Food aid operations range from small food banks that regularly support six to eight vulnerable families to much larger food banks that support between 30 and 40 families a week. Schools have also built relationships with food waste charities such as FareShare that redistribute food that would otherwise go to landfill,” he details. 

According to Baker’s paper, school food charity is an example of “charitable outsourcing,” where wealthy nations’ governments outsource welfare activities to non-state actors such as charities and non-profit organizations. 

Baker also discusses his upcoming book Feeding hungry families: “The current insights from the book are that food aid and food banks are becoming part of what schools do and are being normalized as a way to tackle hunger and food insecurity. Limited evidence suggests that this will tackle the underlying issues.”

Baker says that many families feel that the school’s are becoming a social institution they can turn to.Economic austerity measures 
The recent paper stands alongside an expanding scope of literature covering the growth of food bank use in the country as a consequence of over a decade-long austerity measures since the 2008 financial crash. 

“Families and children need a wide range of services and support to thrive. Since 2008, austerity policies have led to cuts in things like children centers, youth clubs, family and child support services,” Baker argues.

“Schools are often seeing the consequences of this and having to pick up the pieces. Many families feel that schools are becoming the social institution to turn to when they are struggling. At the same time as being faced with growing needs, school budgets have been under huge pressure.”

He states that the financial threshold for receiving free school meals is effectively below the poverty line. "This means up to one million children are in poor households that experience food insecurity but don’t qualify for free school meals.”

A poll conducted in September revealed that 71% of the British public do not agree with the current low-income requirements for free school meals or think it should be abolished

Baker warns: “Universal credit means that low-income families’ income can fluctuate dramatically depending on their situation. The two-child benefit cap means that larger families still have to feed their children but don’t get adequate support.”

The UK’s Food Standard Agency’s recent report on the implementation of its school meal food safety School Food Standards (SFS) Compliance Pilot revealed huge discrepancies in compliance among schools based on income and region.

By Milana Nikolova