Petition Address the shortfall in the payment allocated to schools for free school meals.

The amount paid to cover the cost of free meals is too low. We call for government to fund free school meals properly to ensure that our vulnerable pupils get a good meal without depriving them and their peers of other resources and staffing as schools stretch their budgets to cover the shortfall.

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School caterers have increased prices to cover rising costs. A meal in East Sussex now costs £2.85, but we get £2.53 per meal to cover the cost.

Schools have to cover the shortfall from already stretched budgets. If government claims to provide free meals, they need to cover the cost.

At my school (where 16% of pupils are entitled to FSM: National average for ‘22-23 was 23.8%), we already have over £10,000 shortfall which will have to come out of our budget: more deprived areas will be worse.

This petition closed early because of a General Election Find out more on the Petitions Committee website

76 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 76 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

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10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 30 May 2024
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