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Children in year three and above on Universal Credit in England will not generally be eligible for free school meals if their parents earn more than £7,400 a year in net income, excluding benefit money. 

One of the students Rachel, said in her letter: “I am writing to you to urge you to extend free school meal provision to every primary schoolchild in England. Some kids are coming to school hungry every day because they can't pay for their dinners.

“We don't have a choice to go to school because it's the law but we have to pay for lunch. We at Monksdown Primary want everyone to be healthy and eat as much as they can.”

The children’s letters were handed to Downing Street yesterday (29th June) along with demands to extend the free school meals scheme by more than 240 community organisations.

Assistant Head Chloe Russell, told The Mirror, which is backing the campaign: “We just think it's absolutely beyond awful that in our country it's not a significant enough issue for the Government to make sure the children are being fed. We have got such wonderful, amazing parents at our school.

“They're doing their absolute best but you can see they are trying to stretch the food… We want to give them the best possible start in life but they are tired and they're hungry.”