Free meals fairer for all

• IT is a guiding principle in British life that health and education for children are free, and it is a significant anomaly in our system that the lunchtime meal at school has been excluded from this principle.
The school day lasts longer than the time interval that passes before humans need to eat, so a meal is an essential requirement. Given that food is a more basic human need than education, it makes no sense that some children above an arbitrary dividing line have to pay for this privilege while those below don’t. Means-testing stigmatises the need for food, and creates a poverty trap for those on a low income and those on lower incomes with more than one child.
Labour’s free school meals policy is intended to create a level playing field for all children, and stands for the principle that Labour wants to see Islington made a fairer place for everyone.
CLLR MARTIN KLUTE
Labour chairman, health and wellbeing scrutiny committee