School children in Liverpool have written to Rishi Sunak urging him to provide free school meals for struggling families across the country.
As the cost of living crisis deepens and more families struggle to keep children fed throughout the day, there are increasing calls for universal free school meals to try and tackle hunger and poverty issues in the country.
As part of a week of action demanding free school meals for all, school kids in Liverpool have written to the Prime Minister to try and persuade him to back the policy.
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The action has been organised by Feeding Liverpool, the city's food alliance, which campaigns against food poverty around the city - it feeds into wider activity organised by the National Education Union.
In one letter, children from Monksdown Primary School in Norris Green wrote: "Dear Prime Minister, children all around the world are suffering in school because they are having to starve because they don't have any money to pay for their school meals.
"How does that make you feel? Because it certainly makes us very upset and so are lots of other children."
They added: "All we're asking for is free school meals for all primary schools in England. Wales did it and so did Scotland so can't we? Are you going to help or not?"
While Wales and Scotland have policies to deliver free school meals for all, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has also committed to the policy for kids in the capital.
The children pointed out in the letter to Mr Sunak that there are an estimated 800,000 school pupils currently living in poverty in England. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that 1 in 3 school-age children in England living in poverty do not get free school meals despite the struggles of their families.
The children at Monksdown Primary added: "Parents and teachers all think it is unfair. Hopefully you will think it through and make children not have to pay for school meals."
In a separate letter, another Monksdown child wrote: "We want you to give all children a free school meal. If you don't have a free school meal you might get sleepy and not learn. Parents might not have money to pay for meals, your brain needs to be full and healthy to learn."
Feeding Liverpool is organising a number of events and activities in its week of action, including coffee mornings and a protest on Friday in Norris Green.
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