As the school bell rings, dozens of children begin filing into the canteen at Hillstone Primary School. The day's offering, a roast dinner, is a popular one, and many are eager to tuck into their plates of turkey slices, roasted potatoes, broccoli and gravy.
For some children in this area of suburban Birmingham, central England, where many families are low income, it may be the only nutritious hot meal in a day.
Some students eating sandwiches from their lunchboxes instead say they get one hot lunch a week, but they would like more. “My mum says it costs a bit more,” one girl said last week.
Free school lunches are provided for all 4- to 7-year-olds in England, but most parents of older children have to pay about 2.20 pounds ($2.70) a day for their child to have a cooked meal. That may sound like a small amount, but charities and teachers say it’s becoming increasingly unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of families struggling to cope with the United Kingdom's worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
