Words by Smiley Team
With food insecurity in Britain reaching one of the highest levels in Europe, M&S is making a vital step by supporting poor families, funding an additional £5 per week for each £15 lunch voucher redeemed at their food stores via the government’s free school meals scheme in England.
The announcement, supported by Marcus Rashford last week, will come as welcome news to those struggling to put food on the table for their children.
To help them, the retailer has produced a downloadable weekly meal planner that suggests recipes for five nutritious breakfasts and lunches to feed two children for under £20.
Designed by the retailer’s in-house nutritionist, Laura Street, M&S’s weekly meal planner offers specialist advice and includes recipes for balanced meals such as porridge with fruit, eggs and soldiers, flour tortilla pizzas with salad and pasta with tomato sauce.
Street said: “Parents are keeping enough plates spinning right now, so we’ve worked up an example meal planner and shopping list to offer some inspiration and help to keep meals varied and nutritionally balanced throughout the week.”
With over half of teachers worrying about the impact of hunger on children’s learning, the additional support will ensure children are both healthy and able to concentrate on their studies.
Drawing on his own experiences, Rashford said: "As a child, I relied on breakfast clubs to kick start my day the right way. Breakfast is so important to guarantee children have the ability to engage in learning, and to flourish within the education system, to go on to succeed at whatever they choose to do in life. Education is the most effective means of breaking cycles of hardship in some respects but education is only achievable with strong engagement and concentration.”
The boost to food vouchers isn’t the first endeavour by M&S to support those in need. Since the pandemic hit, their stores have offered support via charity platform Neighbourly to distribute more than 7.8 million meals across the UK since 1st March alone.
As their food managing director, Stuart Machin said: "We also continue our work with Neighbourly to redistribute surplus food from our stores, supporting over 2,100 local causes, from food banks to youth clubs, with donations of more than 20 million meals since the scheme began in 2015.”
While the economic impact of the pandemic amps up, companies less impacted by this disaster can also contribute to the recovery by following the example of M&S and partnering with charities via Neighbourly. To sign up you can set up an account on their website.
By joining the platform, retailers can support a cause which has provided over 37 million meals to hungry households thanks to companies such as M&S as well as Lidl, Aldi, Danone and Innocent.
