Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and the government’s adviser on food strategy, has sent Downing Street a programme to tackle child hunger which would cost £1.2bn a year.

The proposals include a holiday activity and food programme costing £500m a year, a £100m healthy food voucher scheme and a £670m extension of the free school meals programme.

Dimbleby is recommending that the value of Healthy Start vouchers are increased to £4.25 a week and the scheme extended to pregnant women and households with children under four where the pregnant woman or a parent or guardian in the household is in receipt of Universal Credit or an equivalent benefit.

He also suggests that the Holiday Activity and Food Programme is extended to all areas in England, and that the eligibility for the Free School Meals scheme includes every child (up to 16 years) from a household where a parent/guardian in in receipt of Universal Credit or equivalent benefits.

These suggestions are based on three insights:
> That food poverty is likely to worsen as a result of Covid
> ‘In-kind’ support, directly providing nutritious food to children, is much more effective at improving children’s diets than increases in the overall financial value of a family’s benefits by the same, small amount
> Universal Credit, the Government’s flagship welfare programme, is the right proxy to identify families living below or on a minimum viable wage.

Many national supermarket and conveniences store chains have expressed their support for the scheme and indicated that they would follow Iceland in supplementing the vouchers with additional free fruit and vegetables.