Nearly a quarter of households with children under four don't have enough food, according to according to The Food Foundation’s latest estimate, and children under five are 25% more likely to experience food poverty than older children, all of which is driving obesity and mental health crises, a report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) warned in November 2024.
Official government figures released in March 2025 showed a record 4.5 million children living in poverty in the UK, with an extra 100,000 children living below the breadline in the year to April 2024. The data showed food poverty and hunger also rose, with 300,000 more children in households reliant on food banks over the previous 12 months, and an increase in children in food insecure families, meaning they struggled to afford regular and healthy meals. Analysis also consistently shows that, for example, the North of England faces a higher prevalence of child food poverty compared to the rest of England, as evidenced in a 2023 report from the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group Child of the North, with regional disparities across the UK driving food insecurity.
The UK government has committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in all primary schools in England, accessible to all children, as a means of tackling child food poverty, with the scheme beginning to be rolled out in April 2025. The government also launched its Child Poverty Taskforce in August 2024, tasking it with developing a cross-government strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate child poverty, including a focus on food poverty and its impact on children, to be published in spring 2025. This strategy is expected to include binding targets, focus on social security system improvements like scrapping the two-child limit and benefit cap, and aim for long-term reductions in child poverty. It will also likely incorporate a focus on education, early years support, and tackling the root causes of poverty, as well as working with devolved governments, local authorities, and other stakeholders.
In May 2025, the government's announced that the publication of the child poverty strategy had been delayed, with the strategy potentially coming in the autumn in time for the Budget, allowing ministers to say how any policy changes would be paid for.
The government’s Child Poverty Taskforce must take urgent action to lift children aged under five out of food poverty to prevent driving obesity and mental health crises, the EPI has warned. The EPI has urged the government’s child poverty taskforce to focus on the issue in the government’s upcoming child poverty strategy or risk allowing food poverty to wreck children’s life chances.
The EPI found the cost of living crisis and rising food prices have had a big impact in driving child food poverty, particularly as wages have struggled to keep up and value of benefit payments has declined. EPI researchers also found the Healthy Start scheme – an NHS scheme helping women who are pregnant or have young children and are receiving benefits to buy foods such as milk or fruit – does not do enough to support children experiencing food poverty. The EPI is calling for the government to increase the value of the scheme to keep up with inflation as well as expanding eligibility and uptake after finding evidence it boosted children’s access to healthy food. There is also an unequal access to free school meals, with the EPI noting the highly restrictive eligibility criteria and the lack of awareness of the policy.
This symposium will serve as an invaluable opportunity to bring together stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, charities, local authorities, policymakers, and schools, to discuss the underlying causes of child food poverty, evaluate current efforts to tackle food insecurity and improve access to healthy food, and exchange views on what a comprehensive strategy to tackle child food poverty should look like.