Liverpool City Council will step in to provide free school meal vouchers for the poorest city kids after the government rejected a motion put forward by the Labour Party to extend free school meals through school holidays until Easter 2021 to support families struggling with the financial implications of coronavirus.
Mayor Joe Anderson announced this morning that the local authority will provide the vital vouchers for the families in the city who will struggle to provide meals for their children over next week’s half-term holiday.
He said: “We’ve all seen Marcus Rashford’s campaign and I and my colleagues have all been really worried about kids going hungry in this city.
“As you can read in the Liverpool ECHO, in some parts of Liverpool, 70% of children are living in poverty right now.
“So today I am announcing that the council will stand by these kids and extend our own voucher scheme to make sure that 20,000 children will get the food they desperately need over the holiday.
“Times are tough for this council and we have been hit hard, but we will never lose sight of how hard things are for people who are trying to make ends meet in this city and I’m proud to announce this support today.”
He added: “Hopefully this will make things a little bit easier for the families just trying to put food on their tables for their children in Liverpool.”
