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NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
The barren garden of Edenred
Try as they might, this neoliberal Tory administration has failed to use Covid-19 to foist privatised provision onto hungry Welsh schoolkids, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
School lunches packed for delivery

FOOTBALLER Marcus Rashford won a major victory when his campaign pushed the government into extending free school meal vouchers over the summer holidays. But I’d like to speak up a bit for Labour’s contribution — especially Welsh Labour.

The free school meals issue gets to the heart of the government’s response to coronavirus. When schools were closed by the “lockdown” in March, the government agreed they should give something to kids who normally get free school meals – otherwise poor kids would go hungry because of the pandemic.

The government’s solution was to give a £234 million contract to French corporation Edenred to supply supermarket vouchers to free school meals families. The system did not work well. Parents found it hard to get vouchers. The central online system crashed.

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