Councillors offer food parcels for Peterborough school children in half term

Labour group leader Shaz Nawaz has organised the initiative and has asked anyone who needs a food parcel or support during half term to contact him directly via email.

He said: “I am a firm believer in the saying that:‘The hallmark of a civilised society is how it treats its most vulnerable people.’

“In Peterborough 7,635 children are at risk of going hungry over the holidays as the government withdraws support for the provision of free school meals.

“Millions of families across the country face the prospect of losing their livelihoods because the government has lost control of how to combat the virus.

“This government’s ‘sink-or-swim’ plans for support could leave more than one million children at risk of going hungry over the school holidays.

“Compare the UK government’s response to the decisive action taken by the Labour party in New Zealand.

“Whilst our Prime Minister and his government has failed us, the PM there has won a landslide victory in the recent general election for her compassionate yet firm control of the pandemic.”

In a statement today (October 23) Cllr Nawaz and the Labour group said that since the start of the pandemic in March they had, with the help and support of many generous people and councillors, donated nearly two tonnes of food and toiletries to the foodbank in Peterborough. It also said that Labour councillors take it in turns to pay to feed those who are homeless and housed at the Queensgate Hotel each Saturday evening out of their own pockets.

Peterborough City Council Shadow Cabinet Member for Education, Lucinda Robinson, said: “The free school meals programme is supposed to be there as a safety net so that whatever is happening in the lives of adults the children of our country get fed. I have witnessed in many schools over my 19 years in education the relief it brings struggling families to know their child is guaranteed a meal.

“I have seen pupils worry about there being enough food and that is an anxiety that no child should have to carry.

“At a time of crisis, a nation should be putting the needs of the most vulnerable first. For Conservative MPs to turn down the opportunity to feed our kids for just a few extra weeks of the year is miserly.”

Cllr Nawaz added: “If you or a family you know will benefit from meals during the half term holiday please email me, [email protected], phone 07720 373 126 or Cllr Lucinda Robinson [email protected], phone 07856 653 614, or Cllr Aasiyah Joseph at [email protected], phone 07588 630 178 and we will arrange food parcels for you or the family you nominate. This will be done in strictest confidence. No one need be embarrassed. More importantly, no one now need go hungry in our city.”