Nearly two million children face food shortages

The rising cost of food has left nearly two million school children facing food shortages, a new survey has revealed.

LACA, the professional body representing school meal providers, conducted a survey of school meal providers operating in 9,874 schools, feeding 1.8m pupils a day.

The organisation found that 91% of respondents were experiencing food shortages and over 60% said this has not improved since May 2022. Bread, fish, cheese, pasta and potatoes were the items most affected, the survey found. Three-quarters (76%) of the respondents reported that they have had to change their menu because of food shortages. Over a quarter (28%) are now using more processed foods to cope with rising costs and over half (52.2%) expect the quality of school meals to continue getting worse over the coming weeks and months.