Trial of free school lunch scheme splits opinion

<h2>NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said teachers and school staff see first hand the effects of poverty in Aotearoa&comma; and the free lunch trial announced by the government is a step in the right direction&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Teachers know that hungry kids simply can&&num;8217&semi;t learn&period; Feeding hungry kids at school is a simple but powerful way that we as a society can counteract our shameful child poverty rate&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she says&period; &&num;8220&semi;We look forward to working with the government to ensure the trial is a success&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The trial will provide free lunch for 30 schools in order to reduce child poverty&comma; hoping to expand to 120 schools by 2021&period; Auckland Action Against Poverty also welcomed the move towards the provision of free lunches for kids but warned that the limited targeting of the scheme and low benefit levels wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t address core issues of food deprivation and poverty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Government can’t address child poverty without fixing adult poverty&period; While we support the move towards free lunches for kids&comma; we are concerned that the Government continues leaving their parents in poverty&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Ricardo Menendez March&comma; Auckland Action Against Poverty Coordinator&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In order to put a dent on the record number of food grants by Work and Income the provision of free lunches need to be universal&period; If the Government wants to lift families out of poverty they need to address below the poverty benefit levels and lift them by at least 47&percnt; as recommended by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Hardship grants have almost doubled from June last year&period; In the quarter of June 2019 there were 229&comma;132 food grants needed by families across Aotearoa&comma; compared to 137&comma;424 last year&period; This is a direct result of increased levels of food poverty in Aotearoa&period; Work and Income has not changed its policy around food grant entitlements&comma; while rent prices and the cost of living across the country continue to rise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stuart added that while a free lunch scheme will help to alleviate an immediate symptom of poverty&comma; the bigger challenge is fixing the underlying causes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Ultimately more needs to be done to increase the incomes of families struggling to make ends meet&period; We look forward to hearing more from the government on concrete measures &&num;8211&semi; such as fair pay agreements &&num;8211&semi; that will help achieve this&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Stuart says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;