The number of children eligible for free school meals has soared to nearly 2 million in England, according to official government statistics.
Nearly 23 per cent of pupils now qualify - up from 20.8 per cent the year before - as the country grapples with a cost-of-living crisis.
The free school meals scheme is available to the most disadvantaged pupils in the UK from low-income families.
But charities warn it does not cover all children in poverty, estimating one third – or 800,000 – do not qualify at all.
Former education secretaries and unions have called for the free school meal eligibility criteria to be expanded to all children whose families receive universal credit, with those on incomes over £7,400 a year currently ruled out.
