The economic benefits of providing free school meals throughout the holidays
Can we really afford not to?
If you’ve seen the news recently you would have seen that the Government refused to provide free school meals over the school holidays. On a moral level I feel that its unjust. We can afford to provide the meals so we should. At the end of the day no one benefits from children going hungry.
Given most of the current debate revolves around economics, I wanted to provide economic arguments that support furthering provision of free school meals over the holidays.
1. It’s an investment in the future
School meals are produced to meet high nutritional standards. When students are eating healthy meals, especially when they are young, they experience better physical growth and brain development. The accumulation of these outcomes will result in higher attainment. A better skilled and in shape work force is likely to be more productive. Spending now will result in longer run productivity gains.
2. Embedded healthy eating habits
By providing healthy meals at a young age, you embed healthy eating habits into the diet of citizens. This creates long term habits which promote greater consumption of fruit and vegetables. Greater consumption of healthy food will mean less consumption of unhealthy foods, reducing incidences of cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, for example. This reduces the costs experienced by the NHS.
3. Reduced cost pressure for parents
Given that those who qualify for free school meals are from low income backgrounds, a fair extension of this would be that in a period without the additional support, parents may struggle to provide a nutritional meal for themselves given the additional cost pressures that half term brings. Therefore, by providing free school meals throughout the school breaks, you relieve the pressure on budgets, allowing parents to eat a healthier diet. Indeed, a healthier diet can involve actually eating a meal, a luxury many parents won’t have otherwise. This brings about some of the health benefits mentioned earlier.
Of course, there are further benefits if you provide free school meals to every pupil, such as reducing stigmas, furthering uptake and economies of scale. Often people ask; ‘can we afford to provide free school meals?’ I’d ask, can we afford not to?
Some evidence: “We find evidence that educational outcomes did improve significantly in English and Science. We also find that the campaign lead to a 15% fall in authorised absences — which are most likely linked to illness and health.” Link.
“Serving a free school meal for one year increased children’s intake of healthy foods, especially among children with lower socio-economic status.” Link
