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Shirley Ballas will discuss the importance of free school meals at this year’s LACA Main Event on Wednesday 3rd July at 4.10pm. She will join Michael Hales, the forum chair, in a conversation about the vital need for school food provision and the impact it can have on children's lives. To listen to Shirley’s interview you will need to be a delegate at the LACA Main Event.

Growing up in Merseyside, she was raised by a single mother in a small council flat. On a recent ITV Tonight programme, she fondly remembered looking forward to her free school meal, saying: “I thought it was amazing, I figured out in the queue where I could stand, I got a nice lunch every day.” 

During the interview, she emphasised the critical role these meals played in her life and called on the Government to ‘do more’ to support children living in poverty. Highlighting the increasing number of children facing similar hardships today, she urged for greater efforts to ensure every child has access to adequate nutrition.

LACA’s theme for the 2024 Main Event is ‘Levelling Up School Food’. Providing nutritious meals to children has become increasingly challenging due to significant cost increases, staff shortages and funding shortfalls.

In response to these challenges, LACA has launched a campaign urging all political parties to commit to a minimum funding level of £3 per meal (index linked) in their general election manifestoes.

In 2019, Shirley was one of nine celebrities selected for BBC1’s Kilimanjaro: The Return, where they climbed the 5,895 metre mountain to raise funds for Comic Relief supported projects in the UK and internationally. Shirley is also an ambassador for the charities Macmillan Cancer Support, CALM, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Suicide&Co and Centrepoint.