School Staff Members Buy Food for Hungry Students

Some school staff members in the United Kingdom are shelling out money to buy food for hungry students. According to a survey, many primary and secondary students go to school on an empty stomach and without food allowance. As a result, about one in 10 school employees, such as teaching assistants and classroom support staff, was forced to buy students nourishing snacks like fruits and sandwiches. The survey was conducted by GMB union, an organization in the United Kingdom that represents workers from different industries, including education. More than 4,600 school staff members participated in the poll. Seventy-eight percent of the staff attributed the situation to school funding cuts, which significantly affected school resources like meals for students. One staff member of a certain school shared that each student gets only one free food serving. In cases wherein students accidentally drop their food, they are not entitled to another serving. GMB President Barbara Plant called on the UK government to stop relying on the goodwill of school staff. She said that if schools do not receive enough funding, they would have difficulty fulfilling their responsibilities. Such difficulty might jeopardize the children’s future. Plant also appealed for the UK government to acknowledge that schools face budget cuts. Recently, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that children whose parents earn more than £7,400 (around $9,700) a year are no longer qualified for the existing free school meals program. The DfE insisted that no child would be deprived under the new system. However, research shows that the program could deny about 2.6 million children in the United Kingdom of free meals at school.