More than 13,000 children in Cornwall currently get free school meals to ensure that they don’t go hungry - and the government has been accused of using them "to play political games."

The figure means that 16 per cent of all schoolchildren in the Duchy have parents who qualify – although it is widely believed that many more are also eligible but choose not to apply.

And that number is already rising with more and more families finding themselves struggling to make ends meet as the impact of coronavirus leads to more redundancies across Cornwall.

Free school meals is a hot topic across the UK – helped by a high profile campaign by Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford.

The striker, who himself was a beneficiary of free school meals when growing up, has been campaigning tirelessly to get the Government to provide food for children in school holidays as well as term time.

And, after MPs voted against a motion to extend free school meals, he has championed the legion of businesses all over the country which have stepped in to provide food for children.

This includes many across Cornwall who have offered their help, despite the hospitality industry being one of the hardest hit by the economic downturn caused by Covid-19.

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Sally Hawken, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for children and families, said she was pleased that the issue of free school meals had become a national debate but also hoped that the conversation would continue on a long-term basis.

As of last Friday (October 23) there were 13,362 children in Cornwall getting free school meals.

Cllr Hawken said: “Cornwall is not just cream teas and surfing, there is extreme poverty here. People shouldn’t be surprised by that number, but maybe for some the penny hasn’t dropped.

“We constantly talk about child poverty here in Cornwall but hopefully now people will start to open their eyes.”

All six of Cornwall’s MPs voted against the Labour motion calling for the Government to provide free school meals in the half term and Christmas holidays.

Many of them cited funding which the Government has given to local authorities like Cornwall Council, saying that this should be used to help those in need.

Cllr Hawken said: “I am desperately unhappy about an issue like child poverty being used by people to play political games. It is not particularly helpful at all.”

She said that in 2017 a cross party all parliamentary group, which included the then-Truro and Falmouth MP Sarah Newton, made a series of recommendations that said that the Government needed to provide more support to address food poverty outside school term times.

Cllr Hawken said that as a result the Government at that time announced plans for a pilot scheme and invited applications; Cornwall applied for funding but was unsuccessful.

However the council decided that it would run its own small scale programme, working with community groups in different parts of Cornwall in the summer holidays to provide activity programmes which would also provide food for children who needed it.

The following year the council formed a partnership with Plymouth City Council to bid a second time for funding, but was again unsuccessful.

Despite this the council again operated its own programme, with Cllr Hawken explaining: “Cornwall Council is absolutely committed to try and feed children in the summer holidays.”

Read next: Cornwall praised over free food as council vows to feed children this Christmas

She admits that this would not be possible without the support of the various community groups which work with the council to ensure that the programme works.

And the council has continued to review what it has done: “One of the things that always bothered me was it was not a universal offer. We could see there were some areas of Cornwall where no groups had applied.

“We went out to those areas and asked people to come to our meetings and work on whether we could provide somewhere to feed children and do activities.”

Planning for this year’s summer holiday provision was well underway when the coronavirus pandemic broke out but the council decided it wanted to continue to provide food to those children who need it - although in the event the Government performed a U-turn due to pressure from Marcus Rashford, and agreed to provide funding for free school meals in the summer holidays.

But Cllr Hawken added: "We were still getting free school meals applications in through August. We created our own voucher scheme through the summer to make sure children could access them.”

Cornwall Council has decided to continue providing food to those in need in the Christmas holidays and thoughts are already turning to Easter.

However one of the concerns Cllor Hawken now has is ensuring that all those children who qualify for free school meals get them.

“What can never be said enough is there is a big gap between the number of people on free school meals and the numbers who could be entitled to them.

“We still have an issue that there is a stigma attached to claiming a free school meal.

“Sometimes people don’t know if it applies to them, quite a lot of people don’t apply when they could do.”

She said people in work could still get meals if receiving certain benefits - and many of those who qualify for free school meals may not be in food crisis.

The concern is that with the coronavirus pandemic and more people being made redundant the demand for free school meals and support is only going to increase.

"But there are stories about parents who are having to make difficult choices including as the weather gets colder whether to spend money on food or heating.

“This is not just about food – there are all sorts of issues which are connected with this," said Cllr Hawken.

Some MPs who voted against extending the free school meals into holidays have argued that it is parents’ responsibility to feed their children.

But Cllr Hawken said: “At the moment there will be some people who will have to spend a significant proportion of their day living in fear about how to feed their children. What a shocking state of affairs.

“Those parents, with every fibre of their being, want to be able to feed their children, but some simply can’t.

“There are mums and dads who give the available food to their children and go hungry themselves."