Nursery World - Megan Stephens: How the legacy of Victorian philanthropy lives on in the campaign for free school meals

We may be forgiven for thinking we’re living in the midst of a novel by Charles Dickens, says Megan Stephens, who highlights
an unlikely link between a Victorian champion of education, one of the world’s most famous scientists, and an English star of the Qatar World Cup.

Megan Stephans: 'Hope can be found, now as it was in Dickens' time, in people’s willingness to help'

As children are returning to school, calls for free meals to be made available to all children in England grow louder, while an increasing number of families turn to foodbanks to cope with rising prices and high energy bills. But hope can be found, now as it was in Dickens' time, in people’s willingness to help.

The tough first months of the year increasingly adds to the financial struggles of many families facing the cost of living crisis. During the holidays, some help could be found from supermarket voucher schemes which are available during school holidays to those children eligible for free school meals. These exist in a large part due to a high-profile campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford in 2020 which called for free school meal benefits to be extended into the holidays.

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