Food banks in schools and the cost of living crisis

In the UK, over 2.6 million children experience food insecurity, which is defined as those who have limited or unreliable access to food due to a lack of financial resources (Power et al., 2020; The Food Foundation, 2022). Food insecurity increased during the Covid-19 pandemic and is being made worse due to the current cost-of-living crisis. Hunger and a lack of access to adequate nutritious food are highly damaging for a range of child outcomes, including educational attainment (Heflin et al., 2020).